OTTAWA — Juraj Slafkovský has always been big, and he has always resisted being defined by that trait because that is not all he is.
He has hockey sense, he has hands, and he can make plays.
All of those traits are more important to him than his size. But it is his size combined with all those other traits that make Slafkovský special. It is what got him drafted No. 1 overall, and it has been a long-standing discussion — between player and management, player and coach, player and teammates — that the size element of what he brings to the table needs to be there.
Not that the other traits can’t be there as well, but the size, and using that size, must be a constant.
Slafkovský acknowledged in early December that general manager Kent Hughes pulled him aside and told him to “wake up.” The crux of that message was that he needed to use his size. Coach Martin St. Louis has often mentioned the conversations he has had with Slafkovský about the need to play with pace and how that pace will naturally lead to physicality. He refers to it often as basic physics and did that again after practice this week.
But perhaps the most important part of this desire from the entire Montreal Canadiens organization to pull this out of Slafkovský and convince him this is the player he needs to be is his interaction with his teammates. What they need from him.
After Slafkovský set a new career high for hits with eight and a new season high for shots on goal with five, had his second career regular-season fight and scored a goal in a 5-2 win against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, his teammates’ reaction to all of it might have been the most telling part of the evening.
They, too, have wanted to see this version of Slafkovský because they know this is how he will be successful in the NHL.
Slaf était PARTOUT
Slaf came to PLAY#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/2L9ODL1Z7Q
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) February 23, 2025
When Slafkovský fought Ridly Greig in the third period with the Canadiens already up 5-2, there was a lineup outside the penalty box as his teammates came to give him a fist bump.
hahahaha #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/oCMyMXbzaq
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) February 23, 2025
“I want this to be my standard every night,” Slafkovský said. “I’ve just got to do it again.”
And there’s the rub.
We have frequently referenced a conversation with Slafkovský early in his rookie season, one in which he spoke of how he was used on the power play for TPS Turku during his draft year. The coaches in Turku saw his size and put him at the net front, but Slafkovský has always preferred playing at the right flank so he can uncork one-timers.
He raised his hands as he told the story, looked at them and said, “I think I can use these as well.”
This has always been the battle for Slafkovský, a skilled player in a big man’s body.
But his skill has always been so much higher than the norm in every league he has ever played in.
It’s not anymore.
To use that skill in the NHL, he needs to use his physical gifts to unlock the opportunities to use that skill because that’s what sets him apart.
It has been hammered home to Slafkovský by management, his coach and his teammates. But it took this break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, dwelling on his unsatisfactory results this season, for Slafkovský to see he needs to lean in on what makes him special.
He doesn’t need to be defined by his size, but he needs to use it because it is a significant part of what will make him successful in the NHL.
As he sat on a beach over the 4 Nations break, Slafkovský thought about this. A lot. From the sounds of it, it’s all he thought about.
“I feel like this season is an embarrassment from my side,” Slafkovský said. “After the ending of last year — 30 games, 30 points — and then I come out here, and playing like junior hockey and not doing anything.
“I’ve been thinking about it for two weeks that I’ve got to change something.”
And there, again, is the rub.
Slafkovský has spoken often this season about the things he needs to do to be successful. How he needs to be physical. How he needs to shoot more. He has often spoken about these things after games in which he has done these things, only to play another game in which he did not do those things.
The game he had Saturday night needs to be his identity. He doesn’t have to lose the ability to use his hands, to make plays, to do all the things he feels define him. But he needs to do those things within the framework of the player he was Saturday night — the player he thought about sitting on the beach, the player whose differentiating factor is that 6-foot-3, 225-pound frame.
Slafkovský has had games like this before this season. He has said things like this before this season. But he hasn’t backed them up this season with more games like this. They have been one-offs and not trends.
And he is well aware this needs to be a trend.
“Maybe I would get so satisfied sometimes with a game like this that I would get home and think that was a nice game, and then I wouldn’t come out as strong,” Slafkovský said. “Got to be angry all the time. I can’t let this slip. My teammates expect me to do this again on Tuesday, so I want to make sure I’ll be there for the rest of the year.”
One teammate who can probably best understand what Slafkovský is going through might be Cole Caufield. He, too, had an identity entering the league. He, too, was told that identity is not good enough, that you need to be more than a goal scorer and that you need to be a complete player to remain relevant.
Caufield has done that, and he sacrificed some of his goal scoring last season to get there. But he has come out on the other side, and if Slafkovský needs inspiration to see how a similar adjustment to his identity can benefit him, he doesn’t need to look much further than his linemate who is now thriving because of the changes he made to his game and mindset.
“At the end of the day, it comes down to him, his decision, him wanting to do that day in and day out,” Caufield said. “It’s part of growing his game, part of him being the player he wants to be. For sure it helps out a lot; it creates a lot more space. I thought that was his best game of the year so far, regardless of fighting, regardless of doing whatever. He was physical all night and gets rewarded there with a goal.”
The lineup outside the penalty box after Slafkovský’s fight and his teammates’ reaction to how he played shows the extent to which he has more reasons to play this way than just being goaded by his coach or management. The most intense pressure point is always pressure from your peers, and the validation of Slafkovský from his teammates during and after the game should only help him reproduce this from now until the end of the season.
“That’s the key: to reproduce it,” Nick Suzuki said. “It’s not an easy style. I think he’s kind of been put into a mold that maybe he’s not used to. When he plays like that, though, I mean, he’s so effective. It’s so easy for me and Cole to play with him. I think, probably for him, seeing how he played tonight will really help him.”
Confirmed.
“You see that it’s working, and you just want to keep that,” Slafkovský said. “Just have to translate it to next game, because that’s been an issue this year.”
The Canadiens’ win against the Senators is far less important than this revelation for Slafkovský. If he realizes this is how he will be a successful NHL player and can replicate it night after night, missing the playoffs will be an afterthought.
The Canadiens need stories like Slafkovský’s from now until the end of the season far worse than they need an undeserved playoff berth.
(Photo of Juraj Slafkovský fighting Ridly Greig: Chris Tanouye / Freestyle Photography / Getty Images)
