Mackinnon, Drouin complement each other
Halifax teammates are QMJHL’S top-rated draft-eligible players
Since he returned to Nova Scotia following the World Junior Hockey Championship in Russia, Halifax Mooseheads forward Nathan MacKinnon has been getting plenty of sleep.
He beat his family home from Russia after their flight got cancelled and jokingly tweeted: “Can someone come make me breakfast? I’m pretty weak in the kitchen.”
“I’ve just been alone in the house for a couple of days and I’m pretty bored, to be honest,” MacKinnon said in an interview Wednesday.
He won’t have time to be bored for long. Friday, MacKinnon will rejoin the Mooseheads, who have the best record this season in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, for their home game against the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada.
Then next Wednesday he’ll be the captain for Team Cherry at the Top Prospects game in Halifax, featuring the Top 40 NHL draft-eligible players from the Canadian Hockey League.
The opposing team captain for the event is Seth Jones, a defenceman with the Portland Winterhawks. The two have been touted as the potential top picks in this year’s NHL draft.
MacKinnon and his linemate, Jonathan Drouin from Dollard-des-Ormeaux, were the only 17-year-olds to make the Canadian national junior team, which finished fourth at the world juniors tournament.
“It was a lot of fun. It was a good group of guys — very talented team,” MacKinnon said.
It wasn’t the finish they expected from themselves, but MacKinnon called it a good experience for everybody.
MacKinnon, who leads the Mooseheads in points this season with 22 goals and 30 assists, mainly played on the fourth line in a checking role in Russia, which he acknowledged was different at first — a change from his usual role.
“Regardless of my role, I wanted to help the team win and overall I thought I did an OK job of that,” he said.
NHL Central Scouting ranked MacKinnon and Drouin No. 1 and 2, respectively, among draft-eligible skaters in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in its preliminary rankings last fall.
They’re completely different players but resemble each other in how they are competitors and want to get better, Dominique Ducharme, the Mooseheads head coach, told The Gazette last month.
MacKinnon is powerful and explosive.
“He comes out of the block, he’s unbelievable,” Ducha- rme said. “So he’s got that quickness not only with his feet but with his hands. He’s got that drive to attack the net and he’s really strong on the puck.
“He’s more of a physical force and (Drouin) is more of a finesse guy.”
The first real time he and Drouin played together on a line was in the second round of the playoffs last season, MacKinnon said.
“We both just started playing unbelievable together … the best hockey we’ve ever played.”
“We’ve developed a really good chemistry and I think that starts off the ice. We’re very close friends and that just kind of carries onto the ice as well.”
“At the end of the day, we know that we’re going to try to be the best players individually we can be. It’s not about being better than one another. We’re just trying to help the Mooseheads win,” said MacKinnon, who believes the team has a good shot at winning the Memorial Cup.
MacKinnon said it will be “cool” to play for former NHL coach and Hockey Night in Canada icon Don Cherry, who is coaching Team Cherry at the prospects game next week. More than 200 scout tickets have been sold for the event, according to the CHL.
MacKinnon said he doesn’t feel pressure going into the game.
“I think the scouts know what kind of player you are at this point.”
MacKinnon is from Cole Harbour, N.S., the hometown of Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby, who was drafted No. 1 in 2005. He met Crosby for the first time last summer, skating at a local rink.
MacKinnon went to the 2012 NHL entry draft in Pittsburgh at the suggestion of his agent, Pat Brisson. Seth Jones, also represented by Brisson, was there as well.
“It’s nice that we’ve seen it,” MacKinnon said. “We know what it’s like and we know what to expect going further on in June.”
As for the draft speculation, MacKinnon said: “I’ve never really put too much thought into that kind of stuff. I’m focusing on getting better and working hard every day.”
There are little extra things you have to deal with because of the speculation of going No. 1, like media interviews, MacKinnon said.
“But at the end of the day it’s about developing and trying to make a career in the NHL.”