Colossal work by Martin St-Louis: The head coach is turning young forward Juraj Slafkovsky into quite a player for the Montreal Canadiens

We've seen it very clearly since December; Juraj Slafkovsky is a transformed player. It all started with his commitment to playing a 200-foot game, and then the statistics followed.

It's simple, at the beginning of December, there were more analysts who believed sending him to Laval would be better for him than keeping him in Montreal. Martin St-Louis repeatedly stated that his place was in the NHL.

It must be admitted that the coach was right. Today, we couldn't imagine being without him on the first line, imagine that. That's how remarkable his progress has been.

His progress directly translates to his ice time. Since December 15th, Slaf has been averaging 19 minutes and 11 seconds per game. For a 19-year-old, that's truly impressive, even ranking as the 6th best result over the past 20 years.


You read that right. Only Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, Anze Kopitar, Brett Connoly, and Ilya Kovalchuk have done better.


For those who still doubt the first overall pick in 2022, maybe it's time to start looking at the facts. Juraj is becoming quite a player, and Martin St-Louis is certainly not a stranger to this success.