Better luck next year: Juraj Slafkovsky's development was the big win for the Montreal Canadiens

They missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs again but their recent No. 1 overall pick looks like he is going to be one heck of an NHL player.

Welcome back to Better Luck Next Year, a series that will focus on each team as they get eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. What went wrong, why it went wrong, what (if anything) went right, and what is next. We continue today with the next team to be officially eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention: The Montreal Canadiens

Maybe it is just my perspective as an outsider, but I do not think there is a recent No. 1 overall pick that has been put into a tougher situation than Juraj Slafkovsky, the top pick for the Montreal Canadiens in the 2022 NHL Draft.

Just think of the set of circumstances he faced, has been facing, and is facing.

• He was a No. 1 overall pick, something that always brings an immense level of pressure and expectation to a player. When you go first, you are not just expected to be a good NHL player. You are expected to be the cornerstone player of an entire NHL franchise.

• He was a No. 1 overall pick … for the Montreal Canadiens. The Montreal Canadiens, in any context, are synonymous with pressure and expectation just because it’s Montreal. The media pressure, the fan pressure, it is an entirely different animal than being the No. 1 overall pick in, say, Arizona or Seattle.

• He was also not a consensus No. 1 pick. Going into his draft class the expectation for that entire year was that Shane Wright was going to be the top pick. But because Slafkovsky wowed scouts in the lead-up to the draft, and because he was an absolute tank of an 18-year-old physically, he ended up getting that honor to hear his name called first. When you are not a consensus pick, and when you go ahead of somebody that was expected to be the top pick, you are always going to be playing your career in comparison to that player. Add in the aforementioned Montreal pressure, and well, that is going to be a challenge.

• On top of that, he was going to a bad team in the middle of a rebuild, and his rookie season as an 18-year-old did not provide much of an impact. He missed half of the season due to injury, and when he did play he managed just four goals and 10 points in 39 games. Not ideal.

Still, I thought he was one of the most fascinating players entering the season, and his development was going to be one of the biggest things to watch for the Canadiens.

And you know what?

The Canadiens have to be happy with it because he took a pretty massive step forward and looks like he has a chance to be one heck of a player. I do not expect him to be a superstar on the level of a Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid that is a generational talent or is competing for MVP awards and scoring titles every year. But given his size, his skill and the progress he showed from year one to year two I think he is going to have a hell of a career in Montreal and be a big part of their return to relevance in the coming seasons.

As of Sunday he is up to 16 goals and 45 points in 76 games, which is a very respectable level for a 19-year-old. But it has really been over the second half of the season where he really started to put things together.

Through Dec. 31 Slafkovsky had just four goals and 13 total points in his first 36 games. It was a pretty similar level of production to what we saw from him as a rookie. Bust whispers were already starting.

But when the calendar rolled over to January something started to click for him and you could tell he was figuring it out. Since then he has 12 goals, 20 assists and 32 total points in 40 games, which comes out to around a 24-25 goal and 64-65 point pace over 82 games. He has also seen his shot-rate increase and his overall impact skyrocket. I had a chance to see him play in person in New York a few weeks ago and he just stood out every time he was on the ice. He is getting a chance to succeed, and he is.

Whether the Canadiens made the playoffs or not this season — and they were never going to — they needed to see players like him emerge.

Slafkovsky has. That alone makes this rebuilding season something of a success.

Let’s talk about the rest of it.