Stu Cowan: Canadiens' Juraj Slafkovsky growing both on and off the ice

One of the reasons Habs selected him with No. 1 overall draft pick is because they believed he could handle bright Montreal spotlight.

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The Canadiens’ Juraj Slafkovsky had to grow up quickly in Slovakia.

Slafkovsky left home at age 14 to pursue his hockey career and was living by himself while playing with Slovakia’s HC Koske U16 team, where he had 30-24-54 totals in 23 games during the 2017-18 season. The season before being selected by the Canadiens with the No. 1 overall pick at the 2022 NHL Draft, Slafkovsky played with and against men with TPS Turku in the Finnish Elite League.

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After being drafted by the Canadiens, Slafkovsky arrived in Montreal under a very bright spotlight and he struggled as an 18-year-old rookie last season, posting 4-6-10 totals in 39 games before suffering a season-ending knee injury. Things didn’t start well this season for Slafkovsky when he had only one goal and one assist in his first 15 games and had 2-5-7 totals after 29 games.

The improvement in Slafkovsky’s play since then has highlighted why the Canadiens took the 6-foot-3, 230-pound winger with the No. 1 pick. Heading into Thursday night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM), Slafkovsky had 15-25-40 totals in 71 games and had set a record for most points in a season by a Canadiens teenager, breaking the mark of 39 set by Mario Tremblay as an 18-year-old in 1974-75. Slafkovsky will turn 20 on Saturday.

While Slafkovsky’s on-ice performance has been eye-opening, the way he has been able to handle the pressure that comes with being a No. 1 overall draft pick at such a young age has been even more impressive.

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Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis said that handling players on a young, rebuilding team can be like raising children, noting you can’t ask a 2-year-old to do the same things as a 6-year-old or a 10-year-old, adding the responsibilities are different. He also said players need to progress and evolve, which includes taking on more responsibility and accountability.

We can all see Slafkovsky’s progress on the ice, so after Thursday’s morning skate I asked St. Louis what has impressed him most about the way the teenager has handled things off the ice.

“It’s tough … I wouldn’t say it’s one thing,” St. Louis said. “I know you see the success he’s had during games and stuff, but there’s so much more (away) from the game. I think he’s working on so many things. He’s worked on his shot this year. He does a lot of extra. To me, when you’re after something — and you’re genuinely after something — and you want to be successful, you can’t do bare minimum. You got to do extra, and Slaf has done that — whether it’s in the gym or it’s after practice, before practice, whatever it is. To me, it’s his whole attitude. It’s not about him. I think Slaf loves being on the team and he really cares about the team’s success, and I know he wants to be part of that and he’s working really hard to help our team’s success.”

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One of the reasons the Canadiens drafted Slafkovsky is because they believed he could handle the Montreal spotlight. The Canadiens still weren’t certain who they would take with the No. 1 pick the morning of the draft when they met with Slafkovsky. GM Kent Hughes was surprised and impressed when he learned how young Slafkovsky was when he started living on his own and asked him how he cooked his meals.

“With a stove,” Slafkovsky replied.

“He’s very independent,” Hughes said about Slafkovsky after the draft. “He’s confident without being arrogant. We think this is a kid not only that has the mindset that we’re looking for, but we also evaluate where he is in his game, what he has in terms of natural abilities and where he could be if we help him along in the process.”

That process is moving along quite nicely now.

“I think last year … I wouldn’t say it was bad, but it wasn’t a perfect situation,” teammate Jake Evans said about Slafkovsky Thursday morning. “He rebounded quick and has just stepped up in every facet of what he’s doing. You can just see that the pressure hasn’t been getting to him as much now, and I think that’s a huge thing.”

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Evans, who played four seasons at the University of Notre Dame before turning pro, said he can’t imagine what it would be like to live alone like Slafkovsky did at such a young age.

“I would have been crying and calling my mom the whole time,” Evans said with a chuckle. “I was still learning how to do laundry at 19.”

Can Evans — selected in the seventh round (207th overall) of the 2014 NHL Draft — imagine the pressure of being a No. 1 overall pick with the Canadiens?

“No, I can’t,” he said, chuckling again. “I would never be in that situation. I try not to think about that kind of stuff. But he’s handled it really well. I don’t think a lot of guys could do that.”

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