Drouin surprised himself at worlds
Mooseheads’ star braces for Armada
Heading into the selection camp last month for the Canadian national junior team, Jonathan Drouin says he wasn’t that confident about his chances.
“I’m 17-years-old, so I think it’s kind of a surprise,” he said.
Not only did Drouin make the team, but he played his way onto its top line during the World Junior Hockey Championship in Ufa, Russia, attracting praise and media attention along the way for his hockey skills.
Drouin, a 5-foot-11 leftwinger, is ranked No. 3 among North American players eligible for June’s NHL draft in the midterm rankings released this week by NHL Central Scouting.
Seth Jones, a defenceman with the Portland Winter- hawks, was ranked No. 1, followed by Nathan MacKinnon, Drouin’s linemate with the Mooseheads, at No. 2.
“It’s just great to be with those good players,” Drouin said Friday from Quebec City, where the Mooseheads were to play the Remparts. “Jones is a really good player, same with Nathan.”
But Drouin wrapped up the thought by talking about helping the Mooseheads win.
“I don’t think you have to think about that stuff,” he said of the draft.
“You’ve just got to help your team win and I think your name is going to be good. So I don’t think thinking about the draft is going to help you. It maybe gets to your head a little too much. I’m not trying to think about that stuff right now.”
Drouin will have friends and family in attendance on Sunday when the Mooseheads play the BlainvilleBoisbriand Armada before a packed house in the 3,250-seat Boisbriand arena. The game has been sold out for a week.
Drouin, from Huberdeau, a village near Mont Tremblant, started skating when he was seven.
“I started pretty late, I think,” he said, adding he always loved hockey but wasn’t keen on skating as a child.
Drouin says he started dreaming about playing in the NHL probably when he was in midget hockey.
“I was just really playing for fun — nothing else,” he said.
“I didn’t really think about going to other levels.”
It was only a little over a year ago in December, 2011, that Drouin left the midget Triple-A Lac-St-Louis Lions to play for the Mooseheads in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Mooseheads head coach Dominique Ducharme told The Gazette last month he’s never seen a player do things like Drouin can with the puck.
And Jon Goyens, Drouin’s former coach with the Lions in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, has said he didn’t know who — or if anyone — has ever made the leap from midget to the world juniors in 365 days.
“I think what helped me last year was my playoffs (with the Mooseheads),” Drouin said. “I think my confidence went up and I just kept going from there.”
Drouin was averaging two points a game this season — the highest average in the Canadian Hockey League — when he made the national junior team last month. He and MacKinnon were the only 17-year-olds on the team.
After a short break when the team returned home from Russia, Drouin rejoined the Mooseheads last Friday, notching one assist, followed by a goal and an assist the next night.
Drouin often gets asked by journalists if there is a rivalry between him and MacKinnon.
But that’s not the case, he said, adding they’re best friends off the ice.
The Mooseheads have the best record in the QMJHL. The Memorial Cup is their goal, Drouin said, although they first have to win the league’s President’s Cup.
“We’ve got a great team,” he said, “and we’ve just got to keep battling every game.”