Slovak hockey player Juraj Slafkovský became our first ever draft pick in 2022. Now that he is an established NHL player and support of the Montreal Canadiens, the Canadian portal Sportsnet together with Slafkovský took a look at the place where his journey through hockey and life began.
“I don’t think there’s a better place,” said Slafkovský in an interview in Košice. “It is a bit older, but with beautiful architecture. But I also love Montreal and the city as such, it’s my second home.”
“Košice is small, you can get everywhere very quickly. You don’t get stuck in traffic,” he spoke. Slafkovský worked in junior teams under 16 and 18. As he admitted, the people of Košice first started to recognize him on the street after the 2021 World Cup, which was his first at the senior level.
Juraj Slafkovský still as a junior player of HC Košice. Source: Hockey Slovakia / YouTube
Like many Slovak boys, he grew up playing hockey on a concrete field between block of flats. He was on it every day from the age of five until he went abroad, as he already played in Austria, the Czech Republic and Finland as a junior. “I was here until my parents yelled at me to go home.”
Slafkovský remembered the historic day of his life and Slovak hockey on the concrete field, which was his district in childhood. “I couldn’t believe it when I heard my name. It can also be seen on the recording. But then the camp came and there it didn’t matter to everyone whether I was a unit or not. It’s still just a number, it looks good on paper, but it doesn’t mean anything.”
Another NHL player from Košice also commented on Slafkovský, and according to Sportsnet editor Elliott Friedman, the best Slovak hockey player in the overseas professional league, Tampa Bay Lightning defender Erik Černák.
“To be the best? He has to win the Stanley Cup,” joked Černák when asked what must happen for Slafkovský to be the best compatriot in the NHL.
