Canadiens' Slafkovsky flashes peak potential with first hat trick

MONTREAL — It’s in November of 2022 that Juraj Slafkovsky tells us he’s modelling his game after Mikko Rantanen’s. 

In the moment, just one month into his NHL career, there’s nothing outlandish about it. He’s a six-foot-three, 238-pound man-child who’s just months removed from being taken No. 1 overall in the NHL Draft. After emerging from the same Finnish league and team that the six-foot-four, 215-pound Rantanen cut his teeth in before being taken 10^th by the Colorado Avalanche in 2015, he’s got to be aiming at least that high to become the player both he and the Canadiens want him to be.

It's just that as Slafkovsky’s rookie season wears on, and as it nears its unfortunate end due to a knee injury in Game 39, the evidence starts to mount it’s going to take him a very long time to get there. 

It’s a notion that only gets reinforced through the first six weeks of this season, with Slafkovsky’s confidence tanking and calls for his demotion to the American Hockey League ringing out like cries for mercy at the highest decibel level from a fan base assuming his development is being blown by the Canadiens.

Good thing those managing the team didn’t listen.

As Slafkovsky flew off the bench on Tuesday, he darted through spotty Philadelphia Flyers coverage and calmly transferred the puck from backhand to forehand before sleekly depositing it into the back of the net to complete his first NHL hat trick as part of the Canadiens' 9-3 win. This was just one of countless examples he has offered over the last four months to show he might become a player like Rantanen much sooner than later.

“I didn’t see this coming watching the start,” said one scout, “but that comparison doesn’t seem out of whack at all now.”

It seems fitting to Slafkovsky’s teammate Alex Newhook, who knows Rantanen better than anyone in Montreal.

He spent three seasons as his teammate in Colorado, saw his habits up close and personal in both practices and in games, and he has now spent enough time around Slafkovsky to buy into it.

“He’s got a lot of similar attributes,” Newhook says of the Canadiens' star in the making. “They both see the game really well, use their bodies really well, and I think for him that’s a good guy to look up to and take some things from his game.”

Like the ability to change the outcome with the type of tantalizing skill Rantanen has flashed in establishing himself as a perennial 100-point player.

Slafkovsky displayed that on his hat trick goal — slashing through the middle to give David Savard the outlet and give himself the breakaway he handled with the confidence of a seasoned professional.

It was his 19^th goal of the season, his 48^th point, and it was registered with the poise of a player who appeared as though he was playing in his 300^th game rather than his 117^th. 

But the other two Slafkovsky scored also showed how much he’s learned to use the tools that have made Rantanen one of the best players in the world for years.

On the first goal, he made his way to the front of the net as Cole Caufield was setting up Mike Matheson for a one-timer. Once there, he stood his ground and proved immovable as he screened Flyers goaltender Sam Ersson and waited for the puck.

Sure, it bounced off him and into the net, which was fortunate.

But as Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis later said, “When you go to the right place, luck finds you.”

Slafkovsky was once again in the right place when he made it 2-0 Canadiens. He didn’t need any luck as he faded to the far side of Ersson’s crease in the ninth minute of the second period, making himself available to ram home the pass Nick Suzuki sent him. 

Right before that, he was the one exercising the exact right amount of patience to set Suzuki up on a three-on-one that started with a heady play he made in his own end. 

That’s become the norm.

Jordan Harris sees it as the biggest improvement Slafkovsky has made. 

“I’d say just his patience and playmaking ability,” Harris started. “Last year you could tell he had so much skill and it would come out in flashes, but now it’s just every single game where he goes to make a play that a guy blocks off and he spins off and makes a nice pass.”

Suzuki said last week, after a win over the Florida Panthers, that it was actually Slafkovsky’s puck protection and play along the walls that were the elements that have evolved the most in his game.

That the scout we were talking with on Tuesday brought up something else entirely, based on his expertise and his view from well above the ice, tells you how far the player has come in such a short span of time.

“His ability to get through checks to get to the places he needs to be to get opportunities is the biggest improvement,” he said. “You could see his intent was there last year, but he couldn’t get through. And it didn’t look like he’d be getting through earlier this year, when everyone was saying he should be sent to Laval.”

That feels like so long ago.

Slafkovsky has taken Rantanen-sized strides since.

“I learned a lot about the type of player I am, and the type of player I want to be in this league,” he said. “Making all these little plays on the ice and being good in the D-zone and making an impact all over the ice is what I’m trying to build my game for and I feel like I’ve learned a lot that way.”

Slafkovsky has also carved out his own identity as he’s gone along.

He acknowledged after Tuesday’s game that the comparison with Rantanen still suits him, and that he’d be happy to become that type of player. But he also said, “I just want to be myself.”

That’s another sign of growth, on top of the many Slafkovsky has experienced.

He’s becoming a force in this league, and his ascension to the next tier doesn’t feel as far out of grasp of his enormous hands as it did months ago.