Juraj Slafkovsky, the first overall pick in this year’s draft, has signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Montreal Canadiens.
The Canadiens have agreed to terms on a three-year, entry-level contract (2022-23 to 2024-25) with forward Juraj Slafkovsky.#GoHabsGo https://t.co/f5YBKBgY3X
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) July 13, 2022
Juraj Slafkovsky Signs Entry-Level Deal With Canadiens
The first overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft has signed, as Juraj Slafkovsky signs a three-year entry-level deal with Montreal. The deal, according to Chris Johnston, is the full rookie maximum deal with the full schedule A and B bonuses.
Slafkovsky has impressed a lot of people at the Canadiens 2022 development camp, scoring just 22 seconds into a scrimmage game. He first caught the eyes of NHL scouts during the international tournaments this year, recording 7 points in 7 games in the Olympics, 9 points in 8 games at the World Championships, and 11 points in 6 games at the U-18 World Championships.
Slafkovsky has spent this past season with TPS, where he recorded 10 points in 31 games with their top team, and 18 points in 11 games with the U-18 team. He recorded 7 points in 18 games in Liiga’s playoffs this year.
He had an impressive 2020 season with the U-18 team, recording 52 points in 39 games.
What This Means For The Future
Now that the Canadiens have inked their top prospect, it is now time to develop him and make sure that he can transition properly into the NHL. The Canadiens have had a rough patch with developing their prospects, with some of their prospects being mismanaged, and eventually traded or released. This was the case with Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and Zach Fucale.
But things have changed for Montreal however, as they have started to properly develop their prospects under the new front office. Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki are arguably the biggest that have made drastic steps forward with Kent Hughes, although they made their first steps with Marc Bergevin before the Canadiens cleaned out the front office in 2021. with a large prospect pool, a new era for Montreal looks to be quite bright.
