The Montreal Canadiens' season went from bad to worst on Wednesday. Promising rookie Juraj Slafkovsky, who was the team's first overall pick in last year's draft, suffered a lower-body injury on Sunday that will sideline him for the next three months, per ESPN.
Slafkovsky was in the midst of a slow first season, registering just 10 points in 39 games, including four goals. While his production hasn't been what Montreal would've hoped, GM Kent Hughes isn't the least bit worried about the young Slovakian:
“We believe his development will happen in stages,” he said of Juraj Slafkovsky. “It's not, ‘hey, we've got 10 things [for you to do]; go figure them out.' Because I think when you do that, [the player] is on the ice thinking and not reacting. And I think sometimes this year we've seen him think on the ice and other times we've seen him react.
“But we're not worried about the production side of it. We're really worried about seeing the areas that we want him to improve on. Do we see progress in those areas? Because we know, or we certainly believe, that long term, if he makes [certain] changes to his game, it's going to allow him to adapt to the North American style and be the most successful player he can be. He's going to be a different style hockey player than another guy.”
The Canadiens are in the midst of a nightmare campaign, sitting in 15th place in the East with a 19-23-3 record. Slafkovsky joins four other players on the IR, including Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia, Jake Evans, and Kaiden Guhle.
Just nothing going right in Montreal.
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