Original Article here: [https://sportnet.sme.sk/spravy/hokej-juraj-slafkovsky-slovensko-montreal-canadiens-20-narodeniny/](https://sportnet.sme.sk/spravy/hokej-juraj-slafkovsky-slovensko-montreal-canadiens-20-narodeniny/)
MONTREAL. “I will try to fulfill my potential and at least get close to it.”
Those were the words 16-year-old Juraj Slafkovsky used to respond to comparisons to Marian Hossa and predictions of a great career. He was very young and even then he had to bear a lot of pressure and accept all sorts of compliments with humility.
On the thirtieth of March 2024 he celebrates his twentieth birthday. A lot has changed since then, but at least one prediction has come true. Like Marian Hossa a few years ago, Slafkovsky has become the biggest Slovak star in the NHL. He’s accomplished it at breakneck speed – as so many things have before.
This day marks the figurative end of an era, at least in his career. Slafkovsky is no longer a junior. He is officially a man.
And even if he were to end his career at this point, he would have nothing to be ashamed of. He has accomplished what most hockey players only dream of.
**A skier on the ice**
The hope we have in Juraj Slafkovski (and others) was just wishful thinking for Slovak hockey fans for many years. Talent was as plentiful as saffron, which made the lamentation all the more frequent.
Suddenly, a generation has come of age, led by a super-talent from Košice. A generation that is rewriting records and setting new – national or club – historical records.
The story of every hockey player is magical. It only took a little to make it not happen. Slafkovsky, for example, was brought to hockey by a friend. His mother brought him to the rink, put on his skates, put a ski helmet on his head, and thus began to write a unique story.
Fortunately, although it hasn’t been customary at all in recent years, this time we’re not writing celebratory odes about a post-career legend. On the contrary, these rumours are about a Slovakian hockey player who basically has his whole life ahead of him. In the coming decades, he will achieve great victories and experience tough losses as well.
Slovakia has produced a hockey player who brought his native country its first Olympic medal joy and is playing on an elite line in the NHL and breaking records. We’ll say it again – on this day, he’s not celebrating forty or thirty. He’s still only twenty, and he’s at an age when most hockey players only tentatively look at the NHL.
**In one year, he’s become a superstar**
The Slovaks started to recognize the name Juraj Slafkovský when he started to play in top tournaments for national teams.
He came to the attention of the wider public as a 17-year-old with remarkable physical proportions in May 2021. After his first junior world championship, he also competed in Slovakia’s most watched international tournament, his first senior world championship.
He hadn’t scored yet, but he didn’t say the last word. Thanks to him and a bunch of his peers, many Slovak households watched hockey that year, unusually in August. That’s when he and other youngsters played in the breathtaking Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
The 2004 class showed what it’s made of. In the competition of the world’s strongest selections, with the exception of Canada, he took second place at the prestigious U18 tournament. He defeated the USA, Sweden and Finland, and was only beaten by Russia in the final.
Slafkovsky finished the tournament with three goals and nine points. And he began a season that shot him up to the top of the celebrity ranks in his native country.
…
*The rest of the article is behind a paywall, so I haven’t translated it all here. But it’s still a great Slaf origin story.*
by Phantomiux
2 Comments
I don’t know if it’s the original or your translation, but that is absolute poetry. One of you should write a book
Wow this is great. Really well written.
I knew Slaf was popular in Slovakia but didn’t realize how important his story is already.