The low season that leads to the 2025-26 season continues, and with the large events such as the NHL Entry Draft and Free Agent Frenzy completed, the dog days of summer clothing absorb while NHL management groups take a little breathing break before the training camps start. In this series I will try to investigate every schedule of Montreal Canadiens, summarize their last season and look ahead to this coming season. I will look at their place in the organization, their role and their possible impact.
Related: Montreal Canadiens: 3 Burning Questions on the way to the 2025-26 season
In the next step of the series I will continue to look at the forward group of the Canadiens, this time with their top line Power Forward, Juraj Slafkovsky.
2024-25 season Summary
In the past three seasons, Juraj Slafkovsky is slowly advanced in his general game. In 2024-25 he scored 18 goals and reached a career high in points (51). He also unlocked a more physical side of his game, which set up a career of 194 hits in his 79 games played. This is an important aspect why it fits well with the top line with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. He brings size, speed and physicality to a line that is considered substandard, but he has the skill level to keep track of them not only, but also to compete with them on the same footing.
He had many ups and downs last season and worked on his game all the time. Maybe he could have solved better figures if he had been consistent for the entire season. This lack of consistency is something that Slavekovsky knows that he is struggling, with a slow start every season. Despite the slow start, he finished the season as an important member of the top line, on average 17:21 Ice Age. Slafkovsky was also used on the top pair of the Power Play (PP) but rarely on the Penalty Kill (PK), but that is not because he is defensively weak; It is more to do with offering players with roles, and using him offensive is more impactive than to bring him into defensive roles.
Like many of his teammates, Slafkovsky really broke out after the 4 Nations Tournament Break. At that time he rested, but he too Meeted the development coach of Canadiens Adam Nicholas Almost daily. In these sessions, Nicholas helped the 21-year-old Slovakse to concentrate on the role he needed to play to become a star player. The player he watched at that time was the game of Brady Tkachuk at the tournament.
Slafkovsky took those lessons to heart and took on his attacking game various notches, but also became much more physical when he finished the season that the team led in Hits, the exact combination of skill and grit that the team wants from their first overall pick of 2022.
2025-26 season expectations
Slafkovsky has completed his three -year entry contract and now enters one of his eight -year -old deal and pays him $ 7.6 million per season. This new salary will be with much higher expectations than ever before for the 6-foot-3, 238 pounds ahead. Frank Corrado on TSN compared his game with that of Chris Kreider. His shot and willingness to use it was a difference maker for his jump into production. His net in the front with his shooting skills challenges the defense. These skills must be seen from game number one and through the season, if he wants to see a big leap in his pointed totals.
His play-off performance last season can offer him the confidence to not only start the 2025-26 season strong, but also to show him that he can be more dominant. While the play -offs of Montreal were short, a loss in five games for the Washington Capitals in the first round, Slafkovsky had a strong performance. His shot attempts per match stood up and his line was dominant. Are Advanced property statistics Were impressive, a Corsi set up for percentage of 64.9% and an expected target percentage of 55.2%, and he did this against the best defending players in Washington.
A reasonable expectation now, because the 21-year-old enters his fourth NHL season, would be him to score 25 goals and offer a total of 60 points. Add to this a consistent level of physical game that would bring him closer to 250 hits, so that he would get close to the top 10 of the NHL in hits. This is especially important because he has to bring that power style to the top line with Caufield and Suzuki, who would open the space in the attacking zone they could exploit and add even more offensive. The key for Slafkovsky will be how well prepared he is to start the season. It will not only be a physical task, but also a mental one, because the expectations for him to perform at night have increased steadily, especially now that he enters his new contract.
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