Montreal Canadiens power forward Juraj Slafkovsky should no longer be seen solely as a complement to Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield; he has shown this season that he's more than the third wheel.
While most of the headlines about the Montreal Canadiens these days focus on either Cole Caufield or Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky is having a monster season for the Habs. The big Slovak, who’s still only 21 years old (for a few more days), is currently playing in his fourth NHL season, and he’s really coming into his own.
Slafkovsky started the season as a complementary piece to the Habs’ dynamic duo on the top line, but somewhere along the way, he became much more than that. When Martin St-Louis decided to split his top line and asked Slafkovsky to play alongside Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen, the power forward had to take charge. Tasked with playing alongside a pair of rookies, Slafkovsky was relied upon to drive that line and bring veteran leadership to it, something he had never had to do before, and it did him a world of good.
What we now see on the ice is an incredibly confident version of Slafkovsky, who’s a good player in his own right and doesn’t need Suzuki and Caufield to shine. Since being reunited with them, the Kosice native has brought his A game to the table. Yes, he still goes to the corner and battles to extract the puck, but he’s also letting his creativity shine. He seems at ease carrying the puck, and it looks like the game has really slowed down for him. He’s not rushed; he knows he has time to make plays, and he takes the time to evaluate his options.
All of that has translated into an incredible year, statistically speaking. Before this season, the 6-foot-3 and 225-pound winger had never scored more than 20 goals or put up more than 51 points. With 12 games left in the Canadiens’ season, he’s already pulverized both marks and set new personal bests.
The goal he scored on Tuesday night against the Carolina Hurricanes by unintentionally deflecting Cole Caufield’s shot was his 28th of the season. If he keeps up his current scoring pace, he’s on course to score 33 goals, which would tie Brendan Gallagher’s most productive season with the Tricolore. It took the veteran seven seasons to get there, and Slafkovsky has yet to hit his ceiling.
Right now, he has 63 points, 12 more than he had in 79 games last year, and the campaign is far from over. If he keeps up his scoring pace, he should be able to get to 74 points on the season. Reaching 30 goals and 70 points in just his fourth season would be quite an impressive feat. As things stand, the power forward has 14 power-play goals; he has never had more than six in his first three seasons, but since he has learned to use his body and size to his advantage, he has really blossomed in the bumper spot. It’s interesting to note that his shooting percentage is also impressive this year at 18.4%, up from 13.5 % last season. Will he be able to keep such a high percentage in the future? Time will tell, but that improvement certainly isn’t all luck.
That’s not an unheard-of shooting percentage for a power forward. Cam Neely finished his career with an 18.4 shooting percentage, Mark Messier with 16.4%, Eric Lindros with 16.1%, John Leclair with 15.5%, and Kevin Stevens and Wendell Clark with 14.1%. Granted, those are big names, but from what Slafkovsky has shown in his fourth season, it’s not unreasonable to think he could make that kind of impact.
Right now, both Slafkovsky and Suzuki are on a seven-game point streak, while Caufield has a six-game point streak. None of them show signs of slowing down, and by the time the season is over, they all will have established career-best numbers.
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