Juraj Slafkovsky on his new 8-year contract with the Canadiens | FULL PRESS CONFERENCE

Juraj Slafkovsky on his new 8-year contract with the Canadiens | FULL PRESS CONFERENCE

conference joining us today we have yurai slavkovsky uray thank you so much for taking the time we really appreciate it and we’ll start the Q&A period with a question from Jonathan ber from Jal Jonathan you’re up can you unmute well sorry about that it took a long time before I got the unmute button uh hiai congrats on this uh contract I guess you’re really happy with what’s happening H uh what did you accept for a s so such a long run did you uh are you uh I mean do you expect this this te to be great in the future yeah for sure I mean I I like I I mean I love Montreal and I feel like we are on a on a good path and I feel like we can we’re building something very special and I and I just want to be part of it as as long as I can do you know if it has been a long negotiation it went pretty uh pretty quickly and everybody agreed uh pretty much on everything uh really quick I mean it it went by pretty pretty quick and yeah there wasn’t much much talk I mean there was a lot of talking around it but uh I knew I wanted to resign and if there would be a chance I’ll I’ll well for me it’s not about money so I will take everything I just want to want to stay all right thank you congrats thank you hey you right congrats for the new contract um I’m curious to know what was the key for you was it really the term with eight years or looking for MoneyWise well for me it was the eight years I don’t I mean if I wanted I don’t know more money or something else I could wait or I could think about all these other things but I feel like it’s it’s done now and it’s out of the way and I don’t have to think about it I can just focus on playing and focus on winning and that’s the most important thing to me so and I’m Happ that it’s that I have contract for another nine years with with Montreal and I’m I want to win and I want to build build something special with the other guys you’re saying your right it’s out of the way so for you mentally it was important to get that contract done uh sooner than later I guess Well if I knew that there was a chance that I could get it done then yeah for sure I would uh I wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible and I mean I’m pretty lucky because it happened what the first day it could be done so yeah congrats next question goes to Stow ARP Basu and Eric angles St Europe up hey you’re um where are you now and did you do anything special to celebrate yesterday after signing the contract well yeser um back home in Slovakia and yesterday I kind of couldn’t believe how fast it happened and I was just in a shock and I had to wake up for some medical tests to today so I could really celebrate but yeah I mean I’m here with my family and with my friends and everyone important around me so I I told all of them and well my mom and my parents weren’t even home so that’s yeah it’s it’s crazy I’m I’m home and no celebration yet but maybe during the weekend um I know it’s not that long ago you were like a 14 or 15y old kid living by yourself um obviously having this dream um did it seem to happen quick like just take us maybe from that point when you were first left home to where you are now and and what the Journey’s been like for you and it’s going pretty fast pretty much couple years ago I just I just left home played played few years in CH and Finland and then got drafted and after first few years signing signing big deal it’s just it’s more like a dream but it’s that’s what I was like working for my whole life and I wanted to be in this SP and I wanted to put myself in this SP and yeah now it’s just time to get some some wins and think about the other important stuff not the not the contracts and everything around it’s a lot of money though have you been able to wrap your head just around like $60 million well yeah I like I said I still I’m still kind of enjoying what happened and I didn’t really think about it I I’m well there is smart people around me smarter than me so they I’m sure they will help me make the make the right decisions thanks have a nice summer thank you too thanks to next up harpin hey U right congratulations on the new deal um just a couple of questions actually unrelated to the the contract I’m wondering if you’ve had a chance to watch demov play at all and what you what you think of him and what you thought of the Canadians being able to draft him yeah I’ve seen some highlights of him and I yeah feel like he’s he’s another great player that is coming in the organization and uh yeah I it will be it will be fun to see him play because he’s a pretty good playmaker got the good good hands I saw some some moves he did in the back in Russia and yeah I already reached out to him and yeah I can’t wait can wait to meet him and see him on the ice um my next one you might not like but I’m wondering how it was like what it was like watching the Slovakia England match in the Euros uh uh I’m sorry I apologize in advance it was it was tough tough game because one minute to go we’re still up and I was already celebrating that we were going in the next round but then yeah I mean England is good and it’s just us slovakians I don’t know whatever we play hockey or soccer or anything with some somehow can always make it a little bit harder on ourselves and make it especially towards the end because I also remember some games when we played and we winning the home game and then couple in like five minutes the whole whole game changes and then you’re just catching the open again but we’re learning and yeah it was tough I’m not watching any other games anymore I’m just kidding all right thank you you’re enjoy your summer thanks Arpin we’ll take a few more we’ll go with Eric angles and Stephen wo with Associated Press Eric hey you’re right congratulations um I know you’re a player that’s always believed in himself how much is that belief reinforced with the Canadians being willing to commit to you the way they have despite the fact that you’re still pretty young and you’ve only got you know 130 games under your belt in this leag well I I was the the start of the question just I know you always believed in yourself how much does this commitment always made to you reinforce that belief yeah I mean I even believe in myself even more when I see that other other people trust me and trust my skills and trust me as a person and that that’s only helping me and I I feel like it’s been like that ever ever since I came to Montreal everyone around me was just like trusting me all the time and like wanted to make me better and everything so yeah it’s it’s just even bigger now and I yeah well obviously I want to give back and I want to I want to perform and do everything so they know that they made the right decision you know that in being a Montreal Canadian you’re under pressure every day no matter what um with a new contract comes a certain another level of pressure I think you saw that with Cole at times this year too what did you learn from from his first year under his new contract and what did you learn about yourself this year that makes you feel prepared to deliver on your contract just feel like he’s always got to keep working like he did and just trust himself because either him or anyone like it’s already already a really good player and obviously it’s not gonna you’re not going to score three goals every night but you just have to trust the process and trust your teammates and do the do the little things right that games wants you to do and then then it will come and obviously there is a pressure around it cuz it’s a lot of money but you’re not going to have eight full years and with every single game being good so you just have to stay focused for for for the goal and our goal is I don’t know something bigger than I don’t know just scoring 30 goals a year or something thanks your congrats and enjoy your summer y next question Stephen why not you’re right my question actually is about your summer because what is your summer sort of training look like and and I guess there’s an Olympic qualifying tournament coming up in August are you planning to play in that for for Slovakia well my summer I just I took some some time off because the season was pretty long play a lot of games and uh yeah I just started started to training and I know train a lot sometimes twice a day different IES have like I have like a plan with my strength coach here and and yeah I uh about the qualification I’m I’m not really sure uh how Montreal is going to decide because it’s it’s close to the season and I feel like the I’m their player and they I’ll do whatever they feel like it’s it’s best for me to doing thank you very much thanks Stephen and we’ll wrap the Q&A period with a followup from Jean Fran Sho nhl.com Jean Fran you have the last question yeah you’re right uh W is pretty smart I was going to ask you the same question about the Olympic qualification uh if it was only your call though would you like to represent your country at the end of August and been playing those games for the Olympic qualification I mean for sure I always like to like to represent my country and yeah we want to want to get to the Olympics so for sure but yeah I don’t feel like that’s my call all good thank you have a good summer thank you you’re right thank you so much for taking the time today we really appreciate it and uh congrats again on that uh contract extension and uh we’ll see you at next training camp thanks everyone for being with us today he guys thank you

Juraj Slafkovsky addresses the media via Zoom on Tuesday, one day after signing a new eight-year contract with the Canadiens.

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