More and more Montreal Canadiens players are arriving in town this week, not because they want to get a jump start on the next season, which is much too early, but because they don’t want to miss Captain Nick Suzuki’s wedding.

Over the last few days, there has been more and more activity in Brossard, and yesterday was no exception as new faces got on the ice. Amongst them are former Hab Tyler Toffoli, who played his first LSHL game on Tuesday, and Canadiens’ center Jake Evans, but also Juraj Slafkovsky.

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The Slovak power forward has been spending the Summer in his home country, training with countryman Erik Cernak of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Had he remained there, he would have participated in a team-building activity ahead of the Olympics with Team Slovakia. Still, he elected to take part in the Canadiens’ team-building activity, which promises to be the captain’s wedding.

According to Slovak journalist Martin Turcin, Team Slovakia’s GM Miroslav Satan called Slafkovsky about the team activity, but he couldn’t make it because of the wedding. Satan adds that the hulking forward won’t be the only player missing, either. In other words, it’s not going to strain the former first-overall pick’s relationship with the national side.

Had he decided to skip the wedding, however, he would never have heard the end of it, as criticisms would have come from all directions. The upcoming season will be a very important one for the 21-year-old winger, not only because he will be playing the first year of his eight-year contract, but because he has to prove he can be consistent.

The Canadiens will be a much more competitive team if he can start performing right away this season rather than start slowly before turning it up a notch after Christmas. He’s aware of that; judging by how he spoke in his exit interview last season, it was made clear to him.

Furthermore, Ivan Demidov’s presence at training camp will likely light a fire under Slafkovsky since the Russian winger will be ready to step in and take over first-line duty should he falter. You know a rebuild is going the right way when there’s internal competition brewing.

Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images

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