After shining at the Milano-Cortina Olympics, Juraj Slafkovsky will be looking to pick up right where he left off with the Montreal Canadiens [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens]. The soon-to-be 22-year-old is having a breakout season, and if the rest of the league hadn’t noticed, the Olympics placed a spotlight on the youngster who carried his country’s hope through the tournament. While Slafkovsky is on pace for a career year with 45 points in 57 games (a 65-point pace in an 82-game season), other numbers highlight how much he’s improved this season. For instance, if you look him up on the NHL Edge [https://www.nhl.com/nhl-edge/skaters/juraj-slafkovsk%C3%BD-8483515] website and compare his current season with the last campaign, you’ll notice quite a few big jumps in performance. Canadiens: Trading Gritty Blueliner Would Be A Mistake [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/latest-news/canadiens-trading-gritty-blueliner-would-be-a-mistake] Canadiens Held Annual Fan Favorite Event [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/latest-news/canadiens-held-annual-fan-favorite-event] Canadiens’ Slafkovsky Made Olympic All-Star Team [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/latest-news/canadiens-slafkovsky-made-olympic-all-star-team] SKATING SPEED One statistic that is particularly telling is his skating speed. This season, his maximum skating speed is 23.03 mph (87th percentile in the league); last season, it was 22.04 mph (below the 50th percentile). So far this season, he has already had 100 20-22 mph speed bursts (that’s in the 85th percentile), while he finished last season with just 61 of those (52nd percentile). Given how often he comes into the zone full speed to apply forecheck and recover the puck, it shouldn’t come as a surprise, but how much that has improved in just one year is quite surprising. SHOT SPEED While his top shot speed and average speed haven’t improved from last season, his number of shot attempts at high speed has. During the 2024-25 campaign, his hardest shot registered 88.99 mph, compared to 86.89 mph this year. However, he has 17 shot attempts at 80-90 mph, which puts him in the 86th percentile. Last season, he made only eight such attempts, putting him in the 63rd percentile. The same improvement can be seen on shots clocking in between 70-80 mph; he has 47 this season, which places him in the 89th percentile. In his third season, he had 34 attempts at the speed, placing him in the 66th percentile. MILES SKATED Last season, he skated 212.32 miles (80th percentile). With 25 games to go, he hasn’t yet surpassed that number, but he’s at 158.69 miles, which is in the 89th percentile. He’s on pace to skate 228.29 miles this season. Of course, that’s impacted by his ice time, which went from an average of 17:21 last season to 18:04 this year, and it goes to show how much of a bigger role he is playing for the Canadiens this season. SHOT LOCATION Slafkovsky finished the season with 133 shots on goal in 2024-25, in the 72nd percentile, and 18 goals, also in the 72nd percentile. This season, he’s already recorded 117 shots, which put him in the 83rd percentile, and he’s got 21 goals, which is in the 92nd percentile. His shooting percentage went from 13.5% last season to 18% this year, which is in the 85th percentile. As for where he takes his shots from, he’s already for 40 shots from high-danger locations and 43 from mid-range locations, which places him in the 83rd percentile; he was in the 72nd percentile with 56 high-danger shots and 37 mid-range ones. While Slafkovsky’s improvement is evident in the high test, diving deeper into the data shows it’s even better than it seems. At the end of last season, the youngster was told he needed to find a way to perform right from the start of the season, and it certainly looks like he did just that. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow Karine on X @KarineHains [https://x.com/KarineHains] Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/karinehains.bsky.social] and Threads @karinehains [https://www.threads.net/@karinehains]. Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens' page [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/] for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens. Join the discussion by signing up to the Canadiens' roundtable [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens] on The Hockey News. Subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free [https://thehockeynews.store/products/print-subscription]. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here [http://eepurl.com/i7OC4I].
