St-Louis reveals the plan with Juraj Slafkovsky and he admits that it changes very quickly

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Jeff Drouin
September 30, 2022 (8:24 PM)

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After three exhibition games, some of the Canadiens' prospects have had their baptism of fire in the NHL and even if they are not official games, it represents a unique experience for these young hockey players.

This was the case for Filip Mesar, Owen Beck and of course the first overall pick of the last draft, Juraj Slafkovsky. The latter was used an average of 17 minutes in the two games he played in, and as reported by David St-Jean of Marqueur.com, Canadiens coach Martin St-Louis spoke to reporters at a media scrum earlier this week about how many games he would like to see him play in during training camp.

He talked about the plan for Slafkovsky, but added that plans change:

"If I'm in his position, I want to play as many games as I can. So, we're going to give him the opportunity. The more he plays, the more of a sample we'll get.

We have a little bit of an idea. The plans (change). He didn't think he was playing first and then he played. We have an idea, but these are things that change with circumstances. We focus on all the touches on the ice. We evaluate every day."

As for Mesar and Beck, while both are expected to return to junior (or Laval) within the next few days, St. Louis said he wants to continue to evaluate them, regardless of how well they play.

These are kids who will potentially go back to junior. As camp goes on, we want to get a feel for the team we'll have, so we'll evaluate our younger guys early."

To his credit, Mesar looked pretty good in Wednesday's game against the Maple Leafs, playing just under 13 minutes. He also got a few scoring chances.

The Habs coach also spoke highly of defenseman Justin Barron, as well as forward Emil Heineman, and it has to be said that the prospect obtained from the Flames in the Tyler Toffoli trade last February has done well in his debut with the CH, as he was one of the most dangerous forwards in the 3-0 loss to the Leafs.

While the Habs aren't expected to have a great season, the future is quite bright and we could see a number of prospects emerge this year.