All eyes on Nathan MacKinnon on and off ice
Avs forward among league’s top producers after netting 38 points in sophomore year
“(Matt Duchene) and Mac (have) played well together. They’re a good fit, there’s a lot of speed there.” PATRICK ROY COLORADO HEAD COACH
Leafs fans were watching more than just another display of elite skating and playmaking when Toronto faced a red-hot Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche Tuesday night.
MacKinnon could be the player to watch this season — not only as a rival to Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Patrick Kane for the NHL scoring race but as a young star who will be a restricted free agent in the summer. MacKinnon entered Tuesday’s game with a three-game point streak that had pushed him to seventh in NHL scoring. He scored twice in 13 seconds (four seconds shy of a club record) in Colorado’s win over Montreal on Saturday.
And at 20, and in his third and final year of an entry level contract, his comfort level is at an obvious high. MacKinnon is bouncing back from a disappointing sophomore season when he got off to a slow start and managed just 38 points. He had 64 in his rookie season. Now the talk is about a potential trend-setting contract for a player still at the beginning of what could be a long and productive career. The Avalanche could secure MacKinnon to a long-term deal that would bank on the player maintaining a high level of performance through the prime, young years of his career — a very reasonable bet.
In fact, with a player of MacKinnon’s pedigree — he was the firstoverall pick in 2013 and the league’s top rookie the following season — a high-end contract could represent a bargain as the NHL pushes to higher salary caps while dealing with a problem of low goal production that has gripped the league the last several seasons.
The Dallas Stars signed budding star defenceman John Klingberg to a seven-year deal worth more than $29 million last season. Klingberg, 23, signed with one year’s NHL experience and avoided the bridge contracts that players like Carey Price, P.K. Subban and Nazem Kadri have agreed to in hopes of turning a short deal into a richer, long-term contract.
Certainly, offence is at a premium. Detroit recently gave 28-year-old Justin Abdelkader a seven-year extension after a career year in which he scored 23 goals, more than doubling his previous high of 10, while chipping in 44 assists, another per- sonal best.
Interestingly, Los Angeles Kings star Anze Kopitar, 28, could be an unrestricted free agent next summer and one of the most sought-after players on the market. But his production has tailed off, if ever so slightly, in recent seasons, an example that teams might be better off paying for the potential production of a younger player.
MacKinnon entered Tuesday on pace for about 90 points, or three more than Benn amassed while winning the Art Ross Trophy a year ago. And he had more than twice as many points as friend and fellow Nova Scotian Sidney Crosby, something that drew a shy smile Tuesday morning.
For the Avalanche, there is huge promise in MacKinnon, especially since coach Patrick Roy has paired him with fellow speedster Matt Duchene.
“Duchy and Mac (have) played well together,” Roy said. “They’re a good fit, there’s a lot of speed there and Duchy knows his time is now, he has to be a difference maker every night.”