Top draft prospect Juraj Slafkovsky draws up play for teammates in Liiga semi-final (w/video)
If you haven't heard the name Juraj Slafkovksy, you're missing out. The 18-year-old took the hockey world by storm at the 2022 Winter Olympics in China, scoring seven goals in seven games en route to helping his country, Slovakia win their first ever medal, bronze. He strong play led to him being named the MVP for the Olympic tournament.
Slafkovsky posses an elite shot, strong vision and plays a physical style of game at times. Another strong attribute he has is his puck protection. Because of his size (6'3"), opponents have a hard time trying to get the puck off of him.
Currently, Slafkovsky is in the semi-finals with his Finnish club team, TPS Turku, where they are facing Ilves, a team based out of Tampere.
Earlier in the series, Slafkovsky can be seen in a video grabbing the white board to draw up a play for his teammates. Remember, he's only 18-years-old, so to show this much confidence doing that, while playing with men older than him is pretty remarkable. Most players that age playing professionally in Europe would be quiet, but not Slafkovsky.
The following is translated from Slovak.
He took the board in the semifinals and explained something to his teammates, the coaches in the background were clearly amused. 😀
(At 18, we explained maximum math homework in this way.)"
Craig Ramsay by si mal dávať pozor, o chvíľu ho možno nahradí Juraj Slafkovský. 😂
V semifinále si zobral tabuľu a spoluhráčom niečo vysvetľoval, trénerov v pozadí to zjavne dobre pobavilo. 😀
(My sme si v 18 takto vysvetľovali maximálne domáce úlohy z matematiky.) pic.twitter.com/Rhas0RMWHP— Martin Toth-Vaňo (@Totik96) April 13, 2022
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Logan Cooley | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| William Nylander | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jack McBain | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Dylan Guenther | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Michael Kesselring | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Fraser Minten | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mikhail Sergachev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Chris Tanev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| John Tavares | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Simon Benoit | - | - | - | |
| Nick Bjugstad | - | - | - | |
| Michael Carcone | - | - | - | |
| Ian Cole | - | - | - | |
| Lawson Crouse | - | - | - | |
| Connor Dewar | - | - | - | |
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson | - | - | - | |
| Barrett Hayton | - | - | - | |
| Pontus Holmberg | - | - | - | |
| Clayton Keller | - | - | - | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 21 | 17 | 4 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 20 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 30 | |
Devils | 23 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 30 | |
Hurricanes | 20 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 29 | |
Golden Knights | 21 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 28 | |
Maple Leafs | 21 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 20 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 27 | |
Flames | 21 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 27 | |
Stars | 19 | 13 | 6 | - | 26 | |
Rangers | 19 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||