Former first overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky has been his own harshest critic all year long, and that didn’t change on locker clear-out day for the Montreal Canadiens. The 21-year-old left winger clearly hadn’t reached the goal he had set for himself at the start of the season. He wanted to produce a little more, and a one-point improvement over last year’s regular season wasn’t what he had in mind.
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After discussing with the Habs brass, it was decided that he wouldn’t attend the World Championships this year. This will be a big blow to Slovakia’s hopes in the tournament, as one of the smallest country, it doesn’t have that many players available, still, Slafkovsky says the decision was well received by the national team’s GM Miroslav Satan:
I spoke with Miro today, and I think we had a pretty good conversation. He understands everything, and everything’s fine between us. We’re all good.- Juraj Slafkovsky on his discussion with Team Slovakia GM Miroslav Satan.
While Slafkovsky said he was part of the decision, I feel he would have liked to go. Given the fact that he wasn’t carrying any injuries at the end of the season, the decision is a bit puzzling. Surely it would only benefit his game to take on the best in the world. Perhaps the Canadiens want to see a full season of consistent performance from the power forward before letting him compete internationally. The youngster must hope his repeated refusal to play in the World Championships will not hinder his chance of representing his country at the next Olympics in February 2026.
By his own admission, the hulking forward went through a lot of ups and downs this season trying to figure out his game, which he feels he did ultimately:
I think towards the end of the season it was a little better so, maybe it would be nice if next season I started in October rather than in February.- Slafkovsky on what he must do going forward.
One can wonder if these are the youngster's words or if this is what was said to him in his end of season meeting. He doesn’t feel his late starts have got anything to do with the way he trains in the Summer:
It’s nothing to do with the Summer, my Summers are always great, it’s just I don’t know what I’m thinking the first couple months or what I’m trying to do, but when I actually start playing my game, I start getting rewarded and that’s what I didn’t do in the first half.- Slafkovsky clearly knows what the problem is.
Slafkovsky explained he’s happy the Canadiens are getting more good players and that the internal competition will help them push one another to be better. Hopefully, this is the spark he needs to get in gear right at the beginning of the season, because if he doesn’t Martin St-Louis will have another interesting option in Ivan Demidov.
While Slafkovsky has already played three full seasons in the NHL, he's still only 21 years old, a fact captain Nick Suzuki mentioned in his own end of year media availability. Even though he has over 200 games in the league, there's nothing abnormal about a player that age struggling with consistency. The winger knows that's the issue and what he needs to work on to become the best version of himself.
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