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Juraj Slafkovsky got a nice surprise when he arrived in the Canadiens’ locker room for Monday’s morning skate and saw his name on the first line with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.

“It feels pretty nice to play with guys like that,” Slafkovsky said after the morning skate as the Canadiens prepared to face the Seattle Kraken Monday night at the Bell Centre. “Just trying to use my chance. I just try to bring my game. Of course, adjust a little bit because it’s probably a little different style. Just bring my game into their game and just work it out together somehow.”

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Slafkovsky, the No. 1 overall pick at the 2022 NHL Draft, played two games with Suzuki and Caufield in early November — a 6-3 loss to the Blues in St. Louis and a 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Bell Centre. Slafkovsky scored his first goal of the season in the first game and was held pointless in the second one.

Heading into Monday’s game, Slafkovsky had 2-5-7 totals in 24 games while averaging 15:00 of ice time.

When asked after the morning skate why he decided to put Slafkovsky back on the No. 1 line now, head coach Martin St. Louis said: “Why not?”

It was a good answer.

As the injury bug hits the Canadiens hard for a third straight season and whatever slim playoff hopes the Canadiens might have had fading away with a 10-11-3 record, why not put Slafkovsky on the No. 1 line to see what he can do?

The day before the 2022 draft at the Bell Centre, the NHL brought some of the top prospects to Old Montreal for media availability. I asked Slafkovsky at the time why the Canadiens should take him with the No. 1 overall pick.

“I can play with those two guys (Suzuki and Caufield) and I think it can be a pretty good line that can make results at the end of the day,” Slafkovsky said. “I think that’s important for Montreal.”

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After Monday’s morning skate, Slafkovsky said playing with Suzuki and Caufield is something that has been in the back of his mind since getting drafted.

“It’s always there,” he said. “They’re the two best players on the team so it’s always there. You want to spend some time with them on a line. I get a chance today, so I’ll just try to help them and help our line to be good and we’ll see from there.”

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At the Canadiens golf tournament in September, executive vice-president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton didn’t want to use the word playoffs when asked what would make this season a success.

“For us, internally, I’ve said this since I got here: We’re going to try to get better every day and I know it’s a cliché and I’m sorry for that,” Gorton said at the time. “But that’s how we’re going forward. That’s what we want. We have a lot of young players that have some room to grow and we’re going to give them that room. I would say if you could wrap it up in one word it’s growth, getting better every day and seeing a lot from these players as they move forward as a team, too.”

A season-ending knee injury suffered by Kirby Dach in the second game of the season, a lower-body injury to Rafaël Harvey-Pinard that is expected to keep him out for another six weeks and a high-ankle sprain suffered by fellow forward Alex Newhook in last Thursday’s 5-1 loss to the Florida Panthers that will keep him out 10-12 weeks will hurt the growth of the Canadiens’ this season.

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So, as St. Louis said, why not take this opportunity to put Slafkovsky on the No. 1 line to gain experience and grow?

The 6-foot-3, 230-pounder still looks lost at times in the defensive zone and struggles on puck battles along the boards on his wing. In the offensive zone, he is often too hesitant to shoot when he gets a scoring chance. Heading into Monday’s game, Slafkovsky ranked eight on the Canadiens in shots with 33. St. Louis noted that like all young players, Slafkovsky is searching for consistency in his game.

I asked St. Louis after the morning skate if Slafkovsky’s defensives issues are the reason he has been reluctant to play him with Suzuki and Caufield.

“I think it fast-tracked us a little more,” St. Louis responded, adding that Slafkovsky’s defensive game hasn’t been perfect but that it’s very good — especially for a 19-year-old. “He’s a smart player and that (defensive) part of the game is not fun, but you have to do it like you love it and it’s so valuable for him to take pride into that part of the game and it’s a big domino effect from it. His ice time goes up, therefore he’s got more opportunity to do offensive things and he’s taking advantage of it.”

Now it’s up to Slafkovsky to take advantage of this opportunity.

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