Slafkovsky takes pride in his physical play ahead of 2022 NHL Draft

The 2022 Upper Deck NHL Draft will be held July 7-8 at Bell Centre in Montreal. The first round will be July 7 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS) and rounds 2-7 are July 8 (11 a.m. ET; NHLN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS). NHL.com is counting down to the draft with in-depth profiles on top prospects, podcasts and other features. Today, a look at left wing Juraj Slafkovsky with TPS in Liiga. NHL.com's full draft coverage can be found here.

Juraj Slafkovsky's style resembles a new generation of Slovakia-born hockey players.
"When [Slovak Ice Hockey Federation president] Miroslav Satan brought me in to coach [in 2017], I watched the hockey being played and there was a lot of trap, a lot of backing up and being safe, being careful ... we don't play like that anymore," Slovakia men's national team coach Craig Ramsay said. "We play fast, we play hard and we're tough to play against."
Slafkovsky (6-foot-4, 229 pounds) of TPS in Liiga, Finland's top professional men's league, epitomizes that new reality, and as a result could become the highest Slovakia-born player chosen in the NHL Draft. Marian Gaborik holds that distinction after going No. 3 to the Minnesota Wild in the 2000 NHL Draft.
"It would be nice if I get to go first overall, but in the end, even the third or fourth pick can be even better than the first and that's the most important thing for me," Slafkovsky said. "There's always things to work on, but if I can adapt to NHL hockey as soon as possible that would only be good for me."
The Montreal Canadiens have the No. 1 pick, the New Jersey Devils are No. 2, and the Arizona Coyotes will select at No. 3.
When Slafkovsky was asked for one quality that NHL scouts need to know, he smiled and said, "it's hard to take the puck away from me."

"I'm seeing a lot of good young players coming along now and they're playing with that same kind of passion, playing fast and playing aggressive," Ramsay said. "'Slavy' plays hard, he's physical, has good feet, good hands, and he has a great attitude. He wants to be a player."
Slafkovsky is No. 1 in
NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of International skaters
, moving to the top spot from No. 2 at the midterm release in January. He flipped positions with right wing
Joakim Kemell
of JYP in Liiga.
"For me Slafkovsky seems to be one of the most NHL-ready players in this draft," NHL Central Scouting chief European scout Janne Vuorinen said. "He's already a very mature player on the ice and seems able to adjust very comfortably at any level he has played this season from the Hlinka Gretzky Cup to Liiga, from the Winter Olympics to World Championship. He just turned 18 [on March 30], but is one of the strongest players. He can even dominate on the men's level at such a young age and he really seems to enjoy the challenge to compete against the best players.
"On the ice he's always willing to succeed, not survive."
Slafkovsky was named the most valuable player at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Still 17 years old, he scored a tournament-best seven goals in seven games to help Slovakia win the bronze medal, its first men's Olympic hockey medal. His seven points tied for the tournament lead and he led Slovakia with 24 shots on goal and averaged 15:50 of ice time despite being the youngest player in the tournament.
NHL Director of European Scouting Goran Stubb said Slafkovsky is "a junior player in a senior body."
"He's a fantastic forechecker," Stubb said. "His checking in the defensive end is unbelievable. … He's a dominant player."
Craig Button, TSN director of scouting and an NHL analyst, has lost patience with skeptics claiming Slafkovsky was able to perform so well at the Olympics because there were no NHL players.
"If it was so easy, why didn't anybody else do it?" said Button, also a former NHL general manager. "Every other player had an opportunity to score as many goals, so why is this suddenly our criteria for evaluating players? It's garbage. The vast majority of prospects don't play against NHL competition.
"What Juraj needed was just to come through that maturation process and then you saw it this past season. Why did Craig Ramsay give him all that ice time? Because 'Rammer' was trying to win. He knew Juraj could help his country win."
Slafkovsky scored two goals on six shots in 17:17 of ice time, leading Slovakia to a 4-0 victory against Sweden in the bronze-medal game. He became the youngest player to score a goal at the Olympics since Eddie Olczyk of the United States in 1984, and his seven goals were the most in an Olympic men's hockey tournament since Pavel Bure of Russia scored nine in 1998.

"He reminds me a little bit of Clark Gillies," Ramsay said of the four-time Stanley Cup champion with the New York Islanders. "He's a powerful guy who can score goals and was a presence every time he was on the ice. There are maybe other guys similar, but he's going to be his own player. I believe that given the right opportunity, where coaches give him a chance to just go play, he'll be fine.
"I always worry about coaches trying to overcoach and make a player do certain things when they should sort of open the door and let them go play and adjust to it after. But Slavy, with a little bit of freedom, has the chance to be a star."
Slafkovsky credits Ramsay for giving Slovakia a reason to get excited about the future of hockey.
"In Slovakia, we're a little bit like stressful people, we stress a lot," he said. "He always is calm and smiling. That's what we needed."
In addition to Slafkovsky, there are three other Slovakia-born players expected to be chosen in the opening three rounds of the NHL draft: defenseman Simon Nemec (No. 3 in Central Scouting's final ranking of International skaters), right wing Filip Mesar (No. 20) and left wing Adam Sykora (No. 42).
"Nemec's anticipation of the game is as good as I've ever seen in any young defenseman," Ramsay said. "He got even better when he returned from the Beijing Olympics.
"Mesar is a little bit of a smaller player (5-10, 174), but we played him in one tournament and he was not afraid. Went to the corners, in front of the net, and was willing to shoot, which is something a lot of Slovak players don't want to do. Sykora (5-10, 172) plays hard, is not afraid to do those hard jobs in front of the net, be physical."

Said Button: "[Satan] was trying to take Slovak hockey and push it forward with the hiring of Ramsay. Miro knows Rammer has never been hesitant about using young players. You're building a confidence in the young guys in a national team system where you can thrive and have success.
"Ramsay is the one that's nurturing, pruning the tree and watering the tree and those roots. He keeps them thriving and it's fantastic to see."
In 31 games with TPS in Liiga this season, Slafkovsky had 10 points (five goals, five assists) and averaged 14:11 in ice time. He had seven points (two goals, five assists) while averaging 15:28 of ice time in 18 Liiga playoff games. Those seven playoff points were the third-most by an under-18 player in Liiga, after Patrik Laine (15 points in 18 games, 2016) and Jesse Puljujarvi (nine points in 10 games, 2016).
At the 2022 IIHF World Championship, Slafkovsky had nine points (three goals, six assists) while averaging 20:32 of ice time in eight games with Slovakia, which lost 4-2 to eventual champion Finland in the quarterfinals.
"Scouts don't use the word impressive very often when they talk about players, but you can see him, game by game at the Olympics, just figure things out," Dan Marr, director of NHL Central Scouting, told the "NHL Draft Class" podcast in May.
"I'm not a fan of using the word NHL-ready with 18- and 19-year-olds, but physically, he might be the player that's closest to compete for an NHL job next year."

Ramsay, who played 14 seasons in the NHL and served as an NHL coach, assistant coach, scout or general manager for 29 seasons, agrees.
"I think he could do it," Ramsay said. "I'm not sure it's the right thing to do because it's tough for an 18-year-old; sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn't. It depends on the team. It depends on the coaching. Each team will have to analyze that on their own. So given the opportunity and the right set of circumstances, he could play."
Photo credit: HockeySlovakia
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