With a 4-8-2 record and in last place in the Atlantic Division standings, the Montreal Canadiens have not been off to a good start so far in the 2024-25 season. The problem becomes fans and people start their finger pointing, whether that is head coach Martin St. Louis, the team defence, or in our case, the budding star, Juraj Slafkovsky. Juraj Slafkovsky would love to get going on the current campaign, and begin to bump up his stats. Here we will discuss his season thus far, offer explanation for why it has gone how it has, and offer some ideas for righting the ship.
Analyzing Juraj Slafkovsky’s 2024-25 Beyond the Stats
So far on the season, Slafkovsky has missed three Canadiens games dealing with an upper-body injury. That in itself is not a knock of Slafkovsky of course, but it has contributed to his slow start personally. Furthermore, it caused coach St. Louis to play around with the line combinations. Again, that in itself isn’t a bad thing, but the lack of chemistry throughout the Habs top-nine forwards has been frustrating. However, it seems that as Slafkovsky is gaining momentum, he will get it going on his spot on the top line. The nice thing about that is that his fellow top liners, Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki have been very consistent thus far.
The point is, that the top line for the Canadiens hasn’t been an issue up to this point in 2024-25. However, the fact that all three forwards haven’t been more productive individually has compounded the other struggles of the team. Moreover, the only part of the top line that hasn’t been performing to expectations has been Slafkovsky. Therefore, fans and media would be quick to call out his performance. But we are here to say, Slaf, along with Suzuki and Caufield have been just fine. Furthermore, to back up our thoughts, we shall mix in some stats for Juraj Slafkovsky and his line.
| 23-24 | 24-25 | |
| Games | 64 | 10 |
| Minutes | 751 | 74 |
| xGoals% | 51.9% | 40.7% |
| Goals For | 40 | 7 |
| Goals% | 54.1% | 70.0% |
The Dynamic Top Line of Slafkovsky, Suzuki, Caufield
From a line perspective, you can kind of tell things will be just fine. In about ten games played together as a line, they have teamed up for seven goals. Combined with the overall on-ice actual Goals% of 70%, more or less proves they are doing fine. Conversely, skeptics would, rightfully so, point to the poor 40.7% expected goal percentage. This gives power to the naysayers, because in terms of analytics on the line’s play, that number isn’t good enough. Plain and simple. However, it is definitely offset by Caufield’s extremely good efficiency. Caufield’s ten goals have come off a 26.3 shooting percentage. Therefore, rather than spending a lot of time in the offensive zone and directing a high quantity of pucks on goal, the fact that Caufield is just sniping, likely hurts the analytic measurement of the line’s true value. Needless to say, the line as a whole is doing fine, so what about Juraj Slafkovsky’s individuals stats?
Look Inward Big Slaf
The eight points through 11 games in 17:57 of ice time is definitely nothing to be overly concerned about. However, he is pointless in three of his last four games. So, he can definitely put consistency as a takeaway for him to work on as self-improvement. In addition, of his eight points, only one is a goal. Also, he only has 17 shots-on-goal. Now again, we can probably point to Caufield stealing a bit of the offensive spotlight, but Slaf needs to pick it up. At even strength, his CF% Rel. is at +1.8, which is a positive in terms of how he’s controlling the game. But he does need to be more involved. On the other hand, he probably needs to contribute more on the power play.
The Habs do have the 12th best power play at 20.8%. But Slafkovsky only has one goal and two assists from the power play contributions. However, it is likely coming for big Slovak forward. So, whether that it is from a more balanced attack once Caufield comes back down to earth or Slaf really gets firing on the power play, Slafkovsky and the rest of his top-line alignment, will be just fine.
Main Photo Credit: Joe Nicholson – USA TODAY Sports
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