Canadiens' Juraj Slafkovsky excited to play with Patrik Laine
The Montreal Canadiens are going to look a little different next season and a big reason being the fact Patrik Laine will be suiting up in their top six and looking to hit the reset button on his career. His new teammate Juraj Slafkovsky thinks Laine is now in the perfect home to rejuvenate his career and is excited about what's to come.
Slafkovsky, who signed a massive extension this offseason, spoke with NHL.com's Derek Van Diest about the team adding Laine and had this to say, "It's good to see (Laine) join our team and hopefully he's excited too. I'm sure he wants to come and restart his career, and I feel like Montreal is a great place for him to do that."
Laine wanted out of Columbus and cited some dressing room issues as one of the many factors of why he wanted out. He's looking to getting back to his goal-scoring ways as he hasn't hit the 30-goal mark since the 2018-19 season.
Laine was acquired by the Canadiens in a recent trade which saw Canadiens GM Kent Hughes also land a second-round pick in exchange for defenseman Jordan Harris. The Habs received the sweetener in the draft pick as they took on Laine's full remaining salary, two-years at $8.7 million AAV.
As for Slafkovsky, he's been a huge fan of Laine's since he was a kid and if it was up to him, they'd be jumping right into game action next week.
"I wish we could skip training camp and just start the season because I'm excited to play games that mean something. In 2016, I was probably 13 or 14 at that time, and I was a big fan of (Laine's), waiting to see whether he or (Auston) Matthews would go first (in the draft)," Slafkovsky said. "So I was a fan of his back in the day. I know who he is, but I don't know if he knows who I am."
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