Montreal Canadiens Mythbusters: Juraj Slafkovsky Edition

There’s no avoiding the heightened level of interest, and consequently, the criticism that comes with playing for the Montreal Canadiens. It’s particularly evident for a player such Juraj Slafkovsky, the first overall pick at the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.

The fact that the Canadiens decided to rush him into the NHL plays a part in the equation. Like it or not, he’s been playing in the NHL for three seasons, which opens him up to both reasonable and unreasonable criticism. That wasn’t his decision, mind you, but he does have to live with the consequences of what could arguably be described as rushed development.

With that in mind, given that Slafkovsky is currently part of the oft-maligned crew in Montreal, I thought it would be interesting to verify some of the prevailing perceptions in regard to his play this season.

To do so, I asked for some help from Canadiens fans, who are always happy to oblige when it comes to player analysis.

Before we start, the goal of this article is to verify facts, or bust myths, but that’s not always possible in the realm of publicly available data. I will do my best to avoid providing an opinion, or more accurately, I will do my best to avoid offering an opinion without any semblance of evidence to back it up.

I should also point out the goal isn’t necessarily to defend Slafkovsky. I’ve often been accused of going out of my way to defend players who are receiving the brunt of the criticism from the media and fans alike, and while there’s probably some truth to that, I am a slave to the numbers. If Slafkovsky is playing well in some situations, the numbers will let me know.

Essentially, athletes write the book, but I adapt the screen play. There’s a certain level of responsibility involved in presenting the data to the public, but If I am defending a player, it’s usually because the facts suggest he merits less criticism.

Today we will investigate five Juraj Slafkovsky-related myths, but considering we had over 100 submissions from fans within just a few minutes, we may end up making this a regular feature, covering all the potential Canadiens myths, past or present.

Slafkovsky Myth No.1

Dave Cassin (@willi_39) says: “His passing is underrated. He can find a stick blade more often than not from across the ice.”

Facts: While some have stated Slafkovsky is a little less useful from an offensive standpoint, the truth is that he’s producing much more at 5v5, showing encouraging growth in that respect since he joined the league. He’s playing a little less at 5v5 than he did last year, though part of that involved his confusing assignment to the fourth line while he was the team’s third-highest scorer.

He’s scoring fewer goals than he did in both his freshman and sophomore seasons, and that’s definitely a concern, but we also have to be mindful that he never really projected as a goalscorer in the first place.

As Dave correctly pointed out, Slafkovsky is a playmaker. Furthermore, he’s the most productive player in the lineup when it comes to generating primary assists, as he leads the team with 1.07 per 60.

It’s really what has driven his improved scoring rate this season. Slafkovsky more than doubled his primary assist rate in 2024-25, connoting that he’s been a crucial part of the first-line’s success in plays leading up to goals.

MYTH CONFIRMED

Slafkovsky Myth No.2

Anne Labrecque (@AnneLabrecque1) says: “We could argue he’s going through a sophomore slump, even if this is his third season, as he has dealt with injuries in the past.”

Facts: While the traditional ‘peak years’ for athletes were once considered between the ages of 28 and 32, the truth is that most athletes hit their prime much earlier. Recent studies suggest it’s closer to 22 or 23 when discussing offensive production.

Therefore, we can reasonably suggest that Anne’s point, which is that Slafkovsky is still quite young, and has only recently reached 160 games played despite being in the NHL since he was 18, is worth adding to the mix.

Of course, most of the athletes included in recent studies don’t start playing in the NHL at 18, which means that Slafkovsky already has the type of experience that most players only achieve by the time they hit 22 or 23, another variable worth keeping in mind.

In other words, he’s young, but he’s also ahead of the curve from an experience standpoint.

MYTH PLAUSIBLE

Slafkovsky Myth No.3

Cameradarren (@habs1973) says: “He appears to be hesitant on contact at times. Makes me think he’s favouring something.”

Facts: I don’t love to speculate as to injuries, but I’d be lying if I said I did not have the same impression at times.

If we do look for some evidence as to his hesitancy to deliver hits, there’s not much there to confirm the perception that he’s been a little ‘soft’ this year, so to speak. For the record, several fans made the same type of comment in regard to Slafkovsky avoiding physical play, I don’t want to give the impression I’m trying to dunk on one opinion.

That being said, Slafkovsky is hitting much more often this year, to the tune of 10.4 hits per 60 at 5v5, which represents almost a 40 percent increase compared to the previous season.

He’s also getting hit almost 50 percent less often, though you can interpret that in two different ways. The first would be that he’s learned from his rough start in the league, which saw several opponents lay him out with big, clean hits. The other is that he’s avoiding dirty areas when he has the puck, but I genuinely don’t get that impression when watching him in the offensive zone.

Regardless, since he’s hitting a lot more than he did in year one or two, I think we can safely say this particular myth is probably not accurate.

MYTH BUSTED

Slafkovsky Myth No.4

Bill Tyros (@BillTyros) says: “He’s struggling with puck control, losing the majority of one-on-one battles, and making some costly turnovers.”

Facts: I don’t have to check the numbers to confirm this is true, but we will anyhow, because it’s such a significant issue within Slafkovsky’s game that we’d be delving into intellectual dishonesty by ignoring the statistical change.

As you can see in the chart taken from Natural Stat Trick,  Slafkovsky is giving away the puck almost 80 percent more this year. Additionally, he’s also generating fewer takeaways, compounding an already difficult change in results.

He leads all forwards in giveaways, to the point that he’s coughing up the puck with the same frequency as defencemen Lane Hutson and Mike Matheson, though they have the puck on their stick much more frequently.

We have seen some noted improvements from Slafkovsky when it comes to puck management, especially compared to the first few weeks of the year, but he will have to do a much better job protecting the puck if he’s to permanently gain Martin St-Louis’ trust.

He also has to generate a lot more takeaways, like he did on Friday night versus the Washington Capitals.

The Cole Caufield goal last night obviously doesn’t happen without Juraj Slafkovsky’s great pass.

But the play all started with Slaf stealing the puck in the neutral zone, followed by him winning a board battle.

It’s the little plays that add to the big moments. pic.twitter.com/ckiYkRnoQM

— /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) January 11, 2025

MYTH CONFIRMED

Slafkovsky Myth No.5

Hadi Kalakeche (@HadiK_Scouting) says “IMHO, the issue plaguing Slafkovsky is at the intersection of old-school and new-school analysis. He just needs to skate. He rarely reaches 20mph on-puck, if ever. I don’t have the NHL Edge stats in front of me, but I don’t see him using bursts of speed to solve problems.”

Facts: I wouldn’t exactly qualify Hadi as a fan, he’s more of the expert variety when it comes to player analysis, but he does bring up an interesting aspect of Slafkovsky’s play.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the NHL Edge stats, though you haven’t seen them used on this site very often because I’m not quite sure what the baselines should look like, which makes data analysis based solely on those stats difficult, if not impossible.

But we can compare Slafkovsky’s results to those produced by his linemates, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, to get a better idea of how much pace they bring to the table. It’s not ideal, as the information provided by Edge is all-situations, not just 5v5.

I’ll simply post the results from the three top-line players and allow you to draw your own conclusions, but suffice it to say, Hadi is 100 percent correct that speed bursts are an issue for the youngest player in the Canadiens lineup, especially compared to his most common linemates.

Suzuki NHL Edge Skating Stats:

Caufield NHL Edge Skating Stats:

Slafkovsky NHL Edge Skating Stats

MYTH CONFIRMED

Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick and NHL Edge.