Signing Habs sign Juraj Slafkovsky to an eight-year extension

[Habsfan]

41 minutes ago, hab29RETIRED said:

100% agree.

foe this rebuild to work we need at a minimum the following forwards to be good to elite: Suzuki, Caufield, Slafkovsky, Demidov and Dach. We have more room for error with the number of D prospects, but these 5 forwards need to be legit top line, or 1b type second liners. Locking them up to good longterm deal avoids the leafs stupidity of giving big money for 5 yr deals and only buying out 1 yr of UFA years for Matthews and Marner.

agreed! I think that if Suzuki, Caufield, Slaf, Dach and Demidov can all produce between 65 and 85 points per season, we could have a contender. Let's just not forget that our defence will have to be good as well (Guhle, Mailloux, Reinbacher, Hutson, Xhekaj) will all have to be good offensively and defensively.

[DON]

48 minutes ago, hab29RETIRED said:

He doesn't seem flaky like Galchenyuk and KK. He certainly has shown morw form his play and character, ...

Based on?

That wasnt an issue when drafting either was it?

Wasnt real keen on Slafkovski's antics or attitude shown at times during world championship. Maybe overreading it and it could be he is just very very competitive, hope so.

NOW, with a $60,000,000 contract in his back pocket, will that affect his hat-size, hope not?

[hab29RETIRED]

52 minutes ago, DON said:

Based on?

That wasnt an issue when drafting either was it?

Wasnt real keen on Slafkovski's antics or attitude shown at times during world championship. Maybe overreading it and it could be he is just very very competitive, hope so.

NOW, with a $60,000,000 contract in his back pocket, will that affect his hat-size, hope not?

He's been extremely coachable, no meddling father, and by all accounts he has taken initiative himself to improve - sorts psychologist, the training he did to improve his peripheral awareness. Compare that to a vet like Anderson, who doesn't feel he needs help.
 

I don't mind a player trash talking with the competition. What I have an issue is when a guy is acting like a primma Donna and entitled brat like Drouin did in Tampa.

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

4 minutes ago, hab29RETIRED said:

He's been extremely coachable, no meddling father, and by all accounts he has taken initiative himself to improve - sorts psychologist, the training he did to improve his peripheral awareness.

 

Yup, he is very coachable, no sense of entitlement there. He lived by himself, doing his own cooking, playing in a foreign country when he was 15. I like his enthusiasm and attitude. He is still just barely 20.

[DON]

16 hours ago, hab29RETIRED said:

He's been extremely coachable, no meddling father, and by all accounts he has taken initiative himself to improve - sorts psychologist, the training he did to improve his peripheral awareness. Compare that to a vet like Anderson, who doesn't feel he needs help.
 

I don't mind a player trash talking with the competition. What I have an issue is when a guy is acting like a primma Donna and entitled brat like Drouin did in Tampa.

Sure, just hope has healthy summer training, last year he dropped 8lbs so assume he upped his diet/fitness and likely helped him have great 2nd half of year.

Now, if he can come out of the gates scoring this fall, that would be sweet.

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

2 hours ago, DON said:

Sure, just hope has healthy summer training, last year he dropped 8lbs so assume he upped his diet/fitness and likely helped him have great 2nd half of year.

Now, if he can come out of the gates scoring this fall, that would be sweet.

 

We should keep in mind Hughes’s comment at the end of last season that he was not going to just improve non-stop - there will be periods of regression too. The danger is that, with the huge contract, fans will start turning on him when he slumps in a way that they otherwise wouldn’t have done. I don’t see this as highly likely, but we are entering a stage of the rebuild where fans will begin to shift from being happy about potential, to demanding results. That will create new pressures on certain guys, like Guhle or Slaf, who haven’t faced it before.

[hab29RETIRED]

4 hours ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

We should keep in mind Hughes’s comment at the end of last season that he was not going to just improve non-stop - there will be periods of regression too. The danger is that, with the huge contract, fans will start turning on him when he slumps in a way that they otherwise wouldn’t have done. I don’t see this as highly likely, but we are entering a stage of the rebuild where fans will begin to shift from being happy about potential, to demanding results. That will create new pressures on certain guys, like Guhle or Slaf, who haven’t faced it before.

I think we are at least 2 years away from a legit bubble team and 3 years from being a legit playoff team.

for us to make the playoffs next year, a lot of things have to go right internally, and a lot of teams that should be ahead of us have to have a lot of things go wrong. 
 

we need at least two of Hutson, Reinbacher, and Mailloux to show that their at least a top 4 on a good team and Guhle to take another big step forward. We can't count on that happening until 2025-26. If it happens next year it would be a bonus - but than I'd also expect a regression.

 

Up front, i also think it's obvious we need a healthy Dach, and Slafkovsky probably needs an other year to show he can be a consistent player. 2025-26, is probably when we can reasonably expect Roy to show whether he is a 2nd liner, or a 3rd liner. It's also the year Demidov arrives. So hopefully fans will be patient at least one more year before having playoff expectations.

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

52 minutes ago, hab29RETIRED said:

I think we are at least 2 years away from a legit bubble team and 3 years from being a legit playoff team.

for us to make the playoffs next year, a lot of things have to go right internally, and a lot of teams that should be ahead of us have to have a lot of things go wrong. 
 

we need at least two of Hutson, Reinbacher, and Mailloux to show that their at least a top 4 on a good team and Guhle to take another big step forward. We can't count on that happening until 2025-26. If it happens next year it would be a bonus - but than I'd also expect a regression.

 

Up front, i also think it's obvious we need a healthy Dach, and Slafkovsky probably needs an other year to show he can be a consistent player. 2025-26, is probably when we can reasonably expect Roy to show whether he is a 2nd liner, or a 3rd liner. It's also the year Demidov arrives. So hopefully fans will be patient at least one more year before having playoff expectations.

 

Management has said they want the team to be competitive for a playoff spot next season. That doesn’t mean making it - it just means that, for the first time since 2021, we won’t be irrelevant to the conversation. I suspect that is what most fans will also expect. 

 

If we have another bottom-5 finish - especially if there are no obvious catastrophes explaining the result, such as yet another tsunami of brutal injuries - then I’d expect some dismay to start setting in. Not total despair, but the beginning of a turn against this rebuild.

[hab29RETIRED]

57 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

Management has said they want the team to be competitive for a playoff spot next season. That doesn’t mean making it - it just means that, for the first time since 2021, we won’t be irrelevant to the conversation. I suspect that is what most fans will also expect. 

 

If we have another bottom-5 finish - especially if there are no obvious catastrophes explaining the result, such as yet another tsunami of brutal injuries - then I’d expect some dismay to start setting in. Not total despair, but the beginning of a turn against this rebuild.

I'd expect us to be a lot more competitive as well, but competitiveness doesnt necessarily translate to wins. Have to keep in mind that some of the other teams that finished ahead had down years, and/or significantly improved as well. Most of our improvement hinges on the health of Dach and rate of progression of kids. There hasn't been a significant addition, and I wouldn't expect anything other than potentially a scoring winger.

[Sir_Boagalott]

Slaf likely doesn't need another year to show consistency because he was showing that for a 1/4 of last season.  What Slaf was doing at the end of last season is repeatable vs being a fluke because he was doing the same thing night in night out.   i.e. Slaf has shown that he is the PP QB the Habs have needed for years.

 

Furthermore, Demidov arrives next year even though he starts the season and plays in the KHL.  However, the KHL season ends in Feb so he could be playing with the Habs in March.  If the Habs have a fairly decent start next season they will get a huge boost for the last 1/4 of the season.  I figure they could come close to making the playoffs without Demidov and with him their chance certainly increases.

 

 

[Commandant]

Slaf is not a PP QB.    Stop saying that.  He did not QB the PP.

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

12 minutes ago, Commandant said:

Slaf is not a PP QB.    Stop saying that.  He did not QB the PP.

 

Slaf is a good distributor and showed a good one timer on the PP, actually reminds me a little of Draisaitl in the way he sets up but Draisaitl is not a PP QB either. 

[Commandant]

3 minutes ago, Habs Fan in Edmonton said:

 

Slaf is a good distributor and showed a good one timer on the PP, actually reminds me a little of Draisaitl in the way he sets up but Draisaitl is not a PP QB either. 

 

I agree that he was good as part of the powerplay but the QB was Matthesob.

 

Pp QB is a specific position and it can be a forward especially with teams doing 4 fwds and 1D... i mean in Edmonton McDavid is the QB and Bouchard is more a trigger man... but on last years PP the QB in Montreal was Mattheson.  Even Suzuki did more QBing than Slaf 

 

Its a specific position and role and it wasnt slaf.

 

Slaf was the right side of the umbrella.

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

5 minutes ago, Commandant said:

Slaf was the right side of the umbrella.

 

I think that's a good way of describing it. I guess Caulfield would be the left side of the umbrella.  It almost seemed to me that Slaf was modeling his positioning on the power play after Draisaitl and trying to emulate his one timer which was successful at times.  But you are right, he is not the PP QB. 

[DON]

https://thehockeywriters.com/best-first-overall-draft-picks-past-20-years/

 

"16. Juraj Slafkovsky – Montreal Canadiens, 2022
Career Stats and Achievements:

121 GP – 24 Goals – 36 Assists – 60 Points
Juraj Slafkovsky is hard to place on this list because we don’t know just how much he’s capable of. What we do know, however, is that his pedigree points to success. After being named the most valuable player at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, many teams had their eyes on him as the Montreal Canadiens selected him first overall in 2022. He has the potential and talent to become one of the top power forwards in the NHL.

After a 50-point campaign last season, Slafkovsky is on a strong development path, and in the later half of the season, he was nearing a point-per-game and showing exactly what he is able to do. He needs one big breakout season before moving up this list, but he will certainly find his way there."

[DON]

NHL prospects I was wrong about, 2024 edition: Juraj Slafkovsky, Cutter Gauthier and more - The Athletic (nytimes.com)

 

"And this piece looks back at the why and how behind the players I’ve gotten wrong over the years in an effort to better understand what I missed or over/under-emphasized in my evaluations."

 

"When I look back at the four players I had ranked ahead of him, I can live with ranking Logan Cooley, Shane Wright and Simon Nemec ahead of him, too. Even with the benefit of hindsight, I think my process of slotting those players in front of Slafkovsky was sound, so I’m not going to lose too much sleep over it. But it’s Matt Savoie at No. 4 on my 2022 list that I missed on."

[tomh009]

If I understood the gist of his article correctly, I think what he is specifically saying is that, as of draft day, he should have ranked Slafkovsky ahead of Savoie.

 

That's as opposed to saying that Slafkovsky is the fourth-best of that bunch today, or will be in the future.

[Prime Minister Koivu]

11 minutes ago, DON said:

NHL prospects I was wrong about, 2024 edition: Juraj Slafkovsky, Cutter Gauthier and more - The Athletic (nytimes.com)

 

"And this piece looks back at the why and how behind the players I’ve gotten wrong over the years in an effort to better understand what I missed or over/under-emphasized in my evaluations."

 

"When I look back at the four players I had ranked ahead of him, I can live with ranking Logan Cooley, Shane Wright and Simon Nemec ahead of him, too. Even with the benefit of hindsight, I think my process of slotting those players in front of Slafkovsky was sound, so I’m not going to lose too much sleep over it. But it’s Matt Savoie at No. 4 on my 2022 list that I missed on."

This doesn’t sound like a great Slafkovsky endorsement. Slafkovsky will prove them wrong 

 

 

[GHT120]

11 minutes ago, Prime Minister Koivu said:

This doesn’t sound like a great Slafkovsky endorsement. Slafkovsky will prove them wrong 

 

 

I took it that he was assessing his draft ranking and admitting that he was VERY wrong in ranking Savoir ahead of Slafkovsky ... ***NOT*** ranking the players themselves, either in terms of re-ranking the draft or their current status.

[tomh009]

2 minutes ago, GHT120 said:

I took it that he was assessing his draft ranking and admitting that he was VERY wrong in ranking Savoir ahead of Slafkovsky ... ***NOT*** ranking the players themselves, either in terms of re-ranking the draft or their current status.

Exactly. Which is what I said above, too.

[Prime Minister Koivu]

I took it as he thinks Slafkovsky is 4th best now instead of 5th best. 
 

When I look back at the four players I had ranked ahead of him, I can live with ranking Logan Cooley, Shane Wright and Simon Nemec ahead of him, too

[tomh009]

22 minutes ago, Prime Minister Koivu said:

I took it as he thinks Slafkovsky is 4th best now instead of 5th best. 
 

When I look back at the four players I had ranked ahead of him, I can live with ranking Logan Cooley, Shane Wright and Simon Nemec ahead of him, too

Realistically, as of right now, Wright and Nemec are not at the same level as Cooley and Slafkovsky, I think.