Kent Hughes calls Juraj Slafkovsky's pre-season performances ''underwhelming''
Montreal Canadiens top prospect and 2022 first overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky has appeared in two of the team's three pre-season games this week. Initially, he wasn't supposed to play against the Maple Leafs on Wednesday night but was called into action after Jonathan Drouin came down with an illness.
While he hasn't looked great in those pre-season contests, it is a process and he is still trying to adjust to the North American style of play. It doesn't appear that Slafkovsky will feature in Saturday's tilt with Ottawa, which gives him four pre-season games left to prove he is capable of playing in the NHL right away.
During an appearance on the "Ray and Dregs Podcast", Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes said that Slafkovsky's pre-season performances thus far have been underwhelming.
Hughes added, "The two scrimmages here with our team, I think he led all our players in scoring chances by a pretty decent margin. So he's been very good in parts, there's obviously some inconsistency on how that translates into exhibition games."
Kent Hughes said that the Canadiens will do what is right for Slafkovsky's development, meaning it's not a for sure thing that he will make the team out of training camp. The good thing for the Canadiens if that is the case is, Slafkovsky will only be a short drive away in Laval (AHL), rather than returning to TPS Turku in Finland.
Slafkovsky will be given ample opportunity over the next several pre-season games to show what he's got. It seems a bit premature to jump all over him this early into training camp/pre-season. As Kent Hughes said, they were looking for the best NHL player down the road, not the best 18-year-old. The Canadiens will be patient with his development and won't rush him, unless they feel he is ready to play in the NHL to start the 2022-23 season.
Based on line rushes at practice on Friday, Slafkovsky won't play tomorrow night in Ottawa, although things can change. The next game for Montreal after Saturday night will be on Monday when they welcome the Toronto Maple Leafs to the Bell Centre.
Source: theScore
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Kyle Connor | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Owen Power | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Michael Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Drew Helleson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jirí Kulich | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Isac Lundestrom | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladislav Namestnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nino Niederreiter | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Vilardi | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Johnston | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Evgeni Malkin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Morrissey | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Perfetti | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Bryan Rust | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark Scheifele | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Trevor Zegras | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 20 | 17 | 3 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||