Even though Juraj Slafkovsky has never played a full season in the NHL, he theoretically has a full season of experience. The Slovakian played the 82nd game of his career on Monday against the Colorado Avalanche.
As Wednesday night's matchup between the Canadiens and New Jersey Devils approached, Sportsnet writer John Bartlett came up with the idea of comparing Slafkovsky's stats to those of Jack Hughes, who was also the first overall pick after 82 games.
The observation is striking: Slafkovsky shows results that are very similar to those of the striker, who is now one of the NHL elite.
#Habs Juraj Slafkovsky (1st overall in 2022) played his 82nd career game on Monday. #Devil Jack Hughes (1st overall in 2019) had pretty similar numbers in his first 82gp. His goals per game has since increased to 0.46 in the 194 GP race.
A fun comparison of the first 82gp (@SNstats) pic.twitter.com/HeMHmpK3lh
— John Bartlett (@BartsBytes) January 17, 2024
With 26 points, Slafkovsky has just three goals and five fewer assists than Hughes did at the same point in his career. And Hughes had more playing time: an average of 16:45 compared to 14:34 for Slafkovsky.
The imposing number 20 also appears to be taking the lead after a slow start to the season, having picked up eight points in his last 12 games and complementing the duo of Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield well.