When the Montreal Canadiens have been taking into consideration whether or not they must virtue the Disagree. 1 select within the 2022 NHL Draft on Slovak winger Juraj Slafkovský, we got a glimpse at their draft conferences during the crew’s annual behind-the-scenes draft video.
In certainly one of those meetings, Canadiens co-director of novice scouting Nick Bobrov made his tone for the hulking winger who was once a overdue riser on draft lists that yr.
The primary of the 2 maximum noteceable issues made through Bobrov was once about Slafkovský’s character.
“He just has that personality to want to take the bull by the horns,” Bobrov stated. “He wants to own the moment, the situation. … He’s doing it with that drive, desire, owning the moment, and it’s a personality trait. It’s more than just a skill, a hockey skill. He just has that personality trait to want to own the stage.”
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The second one level was once concerning the strain Slafkovský had already been dwelling beneath in his local Slovakia, a rustic that noticed him because the then superior hockey hope to practice within the footsteps of Peter Bondra, Žigmund Pálffy, Marián Hossa, Marián Gáborík, Zdeno Chára and plenty of others, and the way that shape would get ready him neatly for the pressure-cooker that’s the Montreal hockey marketplace.
“Lastly, a country of five million has been talking about this kid for, what, three years now? Four years now? The pressure on him is a country, and so far he’s handled it unbelievably well,” Bobrov stated. “So to gauge how this kid can handle pressure, I think, there’s evidence, and the proof is in the pudding — not only through the tournaments but through a period of time of maybe two and half years to three years where he’s been the next one — and he kept getting better while under the pressure of that five-million population.”
Two years next, Slafkovský is sitting at the verge of NHL stardom, and his 2nd part of extreme season gave hope the Canadiens have been proper in banking on his character and his talent to care for strain to tug the danger of constructing the unpopular choice to draft him at Disagree. 1.
However what’s that character? The place does it come from? And what’s that Slovak fishbowl Slafkovský has lived in since he was once 14? How did it get ready him for what he’s now experiencing in Montreal?
We was at the supply searching for solutions, spending 40 mins chatting with Slafkovský extreme future to get to the base of those two questions. As a result of the ones questions are, in some ways, the beginning tale of why Slafkovský is all set to change into a central a part of the Canadiens rebuild.
And it starts in Slovakia.
The fishbowl
Slafkovský was once no longer the one Slovak participant to be drafted within the first spherical of the 2022 draft. Šimon Nemec went Disagree. 2 to the Unused Jersey Devils and Filip Mešár went at Disagree. 26 to the Canadiens. Adam Sýkora went in the second one spherical to the Unused York Rangers, and two extra Slovaks adopted within the 6th and 7th rounds that yr.
Having 4 gamers from Slovakia progress within the first two rounds in 2022 matched the rustic’s general of drafted gamers from the former 3 drafts mixed.
However regardless of having such a lot corporate that yr, being drafted Disagree. 1 — one thing incorrect Slovak participant had ever carried out — put Slafkovský into some other stratosphere with regards to his superstar situation at house.
“Slovakia is not a big country, so everyone knows him since the day he got drafted first overall,” Mešár stated of his excellent buddy. “Obviously everywhere he goes, everything he does, it’s already on the internet every day. Like, the next day. So he has to be smart with the things he does off the ice. I would say everyone’s watching him. He’s the biggest superstar there. So, it’s not easy for him, but he can handle it.”
The top-drafted Slovak participant ahead of Slafkovský was once Marián Gáborík, who went Disagree. 3 to the Minnesota Wild in 2000, a draft spot Nemec additionally surpassed when he was once picked 2nd. When Nemec is going house, he too feels the glare of that fishbowl.
However no longer like Slafkovský.
“I have a little bit of trouble, and he’s got really big trouble,” Nemec stated. “That’s the difference.”
Slovak countrymen Šimon Nemec, left, Juraj Slafkovský, heart, and Filip Mešár pose on the 2022 NHL Draft in Montreal. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Photographs)
It’s the kind of superstar situation this is obscure, even in Montreal the place Canadiens gamers are handled like gods. But it surely’s no longer the similar.
“I can’t remember (seeing) that popular of a guy in Slovakia,” Nemec stated. “I think he has a good mind and he’s doing really good now. I think he doesn’t feel the pressure of the Slovak people. … The pressure is hard, but I think he can do it.”
For Slafkovský, alternatively, it’s not as simple as he makes it appear to his excellent pals Mešár and Nemec. This can be a consistent grind. When he is going out to devour along with his pals, he visits eating places owned through his pals’ oldsters, is available in during the again door and dines in a non-public room. He’s going to no longer progress to a bar and grasp a drink with pals. He avoids doing groceries or buying groceries along with his negligible sister since the tour becomes a longer photograph blast. Footage of his house get printed within the media. Footage of his mom’s health club get printed within the native media. Any morsel of knowledge on him, regardless of how banal, is fodder for a tale.
And so when Slafkovský is going house, he hides. He doesn’t have to cover in Montreal.
“No, Montreal is way better. I do everything. Montreal, I can go shopping. Like, if I go grocery shopping back home, I probably take 25 pictures. Here it’s more diverse, different types of people from different parts of the world, so not everyone knows you. In Slovakia, everyone knows you. In a store, the girl that sells you stuff knows you, if you go clean a suit they know you there, if you go buy a book, she knows you. It’s not like that here,” Slafkovský stated.
“I never had this happen here. Everyone is always saying, oh, the Montreal media. I never had anything like this happening here. You focus on hockey, and if I made 17 bad passes, you’re probably going to say 23, but I get that. That’s completely fine with me. But don’t take pictures of my house. I have kids ringing my bell every day (in Slovakia). I don’t live in downtown Košice, I live outside the city, but now everyone knows where I live because it was in the media.
“I’ve learned how to live with it, but it just pisses me off inside. I’ll say it. But there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Slafkovský has refused to present interviews with a number of Slovak newshounds. One in every of them is Štefan Bugan, of the media outlet Denník N, whose pace has been became the wrong way up seeking to file on Slafkovský.
The historical past of Slovak hockey is noteceable to know when seeking to produce sense of the infatuation society there have with Slafkovský, the context of what creates this hysteria that surrounds him always.
It is going again to the split-up of the previous Czechoslovakia, Bugan says. When Slovakia become its personal nation, the hockey program was once dropped into the 3rd tier of world hockey. It was once slowly constructed as much as the purpose the place Slovakia received the silver medal on the 2000 international championships and two years next, received the gold medal. It was once a watershed presen within the nation, contributing to a way of id the rustic was once in quest of ever because the split-up in 1993.
“It’s one of the biggest things that ever happened in this country,” Bugan stated of the sector championships gold. “Not sports things, but overall. It was kind of a unifying moment for the country.”
That was once a blonde generation of Slovak hockey, however nearest a lull strike, and Slafkovský is noticeable because the face of the tip of that lull. And is the reason the media protection he will get at house.
Because of this Bugan spent the extreme two seasons, so long as Slafkovský was once wholesome, dwelling a atypical pace in Slovakia.
“When you wake up in Slovakia you have a lot of articles about how Slovak players played. Not just Juraj, other players too, but he’s the main story when he’s playing,” Bugan stated. “The usual coverage is the journalist wakes up at maybe 5 a.m., which in Montreal is about 11 p.m. after the game, and he just watches the highlights and reads some tweets and he writes a story. When he has no points, it’s that Slafkovský played terrible, something negative. I don’t like it because it’s not the real thing. So last season, I watched every shift of Slafkovský. Every one.
“I was living in Slovakia on Canadian time.”
However Slafkovský does no longer see it the similar manner, although he understands the supply of that media protection is how a lot his nation loves him. He sees it as poisonous — one thing that is affecting no longer simplest his property of pace, however that of his nation as neatly.
Nonetheless, his situation as Slovakia’s then obese famous person is one thing Slafkovský absolutely embraces.
“Oh, I love it,” he stated. “Like I said, I want to be the best and I always wanted to be the best. So obviously I want to be the best Slovakian player. I’m fine with that. I just hate what comes with it because I see other countries and I see other players that don’t have this, even though they’re better players than me.”
And that layout — how he’s at all times sought after to be the most efficient — is the place the character is available in.
The character
When requested what he approach through short of to be the most efficient, whether or not he approach the most efficient on this planet or the most efficient model of himself, Slafkovský pauses in brief to suppose.
“I would say the best version of myself,” he stated. “But I think if I’m the best version of myself, I can be one of the best in the world. Obviously you have special players in this world, and I don’t know if I can be on the level of a (Connor) McDavid or a (Nathan) MacKinnon or a (Auston) Matthews, but I can bring something. And to me, the answer to this is how many rings you have at the end of your career.”
Later he pauses once more, to have a look at his hand, and not using a rings on it.
“If you can look at your hand like this and you have at least two,” he continues, “then you can say you were pretty good.”
Slafkovský has lived with that stage of scrutiny in Slovakia since he was once kind of 14 years ancient, and the Canadiens assumed this scrutiny formed his character. But it surely dates again a lot additional than that. Such a lot in order that Slafkovský doesn’t take into accout a year he wasn’t this manner.
“I think it’s just that I always wanted to be the best, in everything I did, even outside hockey. Any competition, I wanted to be the best,” he stated. “And I never cared. I don’t think I ever cared. I only cared what my coach said, but I never really cared what people had to say. It probably was bad when I was a kid in school and stuff, but I think I was the same way. Someone would tell me something, and I would be like, ‘Nah.’ I would have my own truth in my head. It’s kind of bad when you’re a kid, but then when you grow up, I feel like that kind of helps me.”
There’s extra to it than that. When he took once in a while to take into consideration it, Slafkovský was once in a position to determine the place this comes from.
His mom, Gabriela.
She is obstinate. She doesn’t offer what somebody else thinks.
“My mom never had that many friends because she was always honest with everyone and she always said what she thought. If it was bad or good, she would say it. If she was thinking something bad about someone, tell them right away,” Slafkovský stated. “I’m the same way…So I think it’s because of my mom and the way she is. I’m pretty much just like her.
“I think it was always there because of her. Because of what I saw.”
And to know simply how obstinate Slafkovský is at month 20, you simplest wish to get him again speaking about Slovakia and the environment of the sport in his house nation.
“I can say so much s–t about Slovakia right now that I want to change,” he started. “But I won’t.”
And nearest he did. As a result of Slafkovský doesn’t offer what somebody else thinks.
“The Slovak hockey federation, a couple of things have to change there for us to be successful again,” he stated. “Because I feel we got the Olympic (bronze) medal (in 2022), and people get satisfied by these things, but that was lucky because there was no NHL players. Let’s be honest, we wouldn’t have won that medal if everyone had their full squad. But we get satisfied by these little things. … We think we’re doing things the right way, but we’re not. We’re just pretending. And we are trying to sell it to the people that we’re doing things the right way by pushing these fake results.
“Obviously it’s the greatest thing that ever happened to me that I won the Olympic medal, but be honest about it.”
Juraj Slafkovský celebrates then scoring for Slovakia within the bronze-medal sport on the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. (Gabriel Bouys / AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
Slafkovský stated he thinks hockey in Slovakia wishes wholesale adjustments, that there aren’t plethora property coaches and that selections are too incessantly made for the fallacious causes, on account of who a participant’s father is or whom he is aware of rather of the way neatly he can play games. When he was once 12, Slafkovský’s father were given along with a bunch of alternative oldsters and shaped an elite make a selection crew that traveled to the Québec Town peewee match and alternative North American occasions. 8 gamers who participated in that program have been drafted in 2022 or 2023, and some other was once signed as an undrafted independent agent.
There was once one participant drafted out of Slovakia in 2024.
“Let’s just say all these players that got drafted went through that team,” Slafkovský stated. “So that shows something, no?”
The explanation the fathers put that make a selection crew in combination, Slafkovský stated, was once to get their youngsters out of the hockey machine and the nepotism that defines it. One instance he cited is the U16 and U17 nationwide techniques that run camps in the summertime no to ask gamers who’re enjoying out of the country in North The usa as a result of, he stated, “the people running it are scared that their own kid won’t play, or he knows this guy’s father and his kid needs to play.”
“It’s all about connections in Slovakia,” he stated. “I see it, and everyone is scared to talk about it.”
So, what have been Slafkovský’s connections?
“Me? Yeah, I could play hockey, that was my connection,” he stated. “There was no option for them because I knew how to play, actually.”
The answer, Slafkovský believes, is to “freshen up” the Slovak hockey federation.
“Probably we need more people to work for the federation, but no one wants to work for that,” he stated. “You think Hossa wants to work for the federation? No. Gáborík? No. It’s because of some people that are already there, they do it their own way, so they benefit from it, and not Slovak hockey.
“That’s my opinion.”
It is a bundle for a 20-year-old to have on his plate: the environment of hockey in his house nation, the consistent media consideration in his house nation and managing the ones two realities of his pace at house.
In the midst of all that, being an important a part of the Canadiens rebuild turns out rather minor. But it surely’s no longer.
As Slafkovský stated, he’s going to measure his occupation in accordance with the collection of rings on his hands, and to bring to succeed in that, this rebuild will wish to achieve success. He has at all times leisurely his good fortune thru crew good fortune as a result of he has proof of that being true. Many felt he was once stifled enjoying in Finland for TPS Turku, however he disagrees as a result of he performed within the Liiga finals in his draft yr. The truth Slovakia received that Olympic bronze medal, without reference to the extent of festival, allowed Slafkovský to play games extra video games and sooner or later be named MVP of the match.
And now, with the whole thing his pace at house has taught him and his inherently detached convictions, Slafkovský is able to virtue all his luggage to tug that very same step with the Canadiens.
“People always want to have winners on their teams,” he stated. “I’d rather have a winner that scores five less goals than some loser that just focuses on scoring 40 goals.”
It’s guard to mention the Canadiens percentage his opinion on that.
(Supremacy photograph: Bruce Bennett / Getty Photographs)
