When the NHL doesn’t participate in the Olympics, new stories can be written. One of this year’s best was Slovakia, which won its first Olympic hockey medal by defeating Sweden in the bronze medal game. A huge reason why the Slovaks won was young Juraj Slafkovsky, a draft-eligible forward that scored seven goals in seven matches. Slafkovsky was named tournament MVP by the IIHF.
In this tournament, most nations decided to take a more veteran group, but the 17-year-old Slafkovsky is the one who stood out the most. A brilliant mix of size and skill, the 6’4″ forward continues to climb up draft boards and make his case to be picked among the first few selections later this year. Amazingly, that seven-goal performance came after several other goalless appearances at the international level. In last year’s World Juniors, last year’s World Championship, last year’s Olympic qualifying, and this year’s shortened World Juniors–16 games in all–Slafkovsky had no goals and…
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