How acquired: Selected with No. 1 pick in 2022 NHL Draft
2021-22 season: TPS (Liiga): 31 GP, 5-5-10
The daring choice of 18-year-old Slafkovsky as the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft puts the stamp on the future for the Canadiens' brain trust.
Making the top pick for the first time since selecting Doug Wickenheiser in 1980, Montreal passed up an opportunity to take top-ranked centers Shane Wright and Logan Cooley and went all in on the 6-foot-3, 218-pound left wing from Slovakia.
Slafkovsky was voted the most valuable player of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, when he scored seven goals for Slovakia, which was awarded the bronze medal for the first time.
"There aren't many players who can skate, who have a big body and are able to score like Juraj," general manager Kent Hughes said. "At the same time, when you build a team, we often talk about centers and goaltenders. When we tried to differentiate one player from another, we often came back to the fact that Juraj, even when he played with men at the World Championships, wanted to make a difference. He wanted to have the puck all the time.
"One of the questions that I asked him when I met him was to know what he loved most about hockey. He told me being on the ice when they're up 4-3 or are down 4-3. This type of response is what we saw from him as a player."
Projected NHL arrival: This season