The Avalanche have a history of getting players to perform at a high level. Can they do the same with Drouin, who had his eyes set on playing in Denver?
Every choice has its consequences. Other NHL teams reached out to Drouin and his representatives about joining their club. Those clubs had more salary cap space and offered more money than what thepresented to Drouin, which was a one-year contract worth $825,000 -- a substantial dip from the $5.5 million annual salary he earned over the past six seasons.
"With the team here, everyone could probably achieve their career numbers with the way they play and the way they move the puck," Drouin said."But that wasn't really the main reason . I don't really have any goals for me other than finding my game back and helping this team in any way I can."go beyond being marks on flesh. They provide illustrations into the pain of a life.
Expectations have long followed Drouin. Recording a pair of 100-point seasons in the QMJHL does that. So does going No. 3 overall in the 2013 draft to the. He played three seasons in Tampa, with his final year there amplifying those expectations as Drouin scored a career-high 21 goals and 53 points. Drouin also said being a top-three pick and a French Canadian who grew up an hour away from Montreal also contributed to his anxiety. He believed he was ready to carrying those expectations because he grew up watching other players handle them.Longtime NHL agent Allan Walsh, who has known Drouin and represented him since he was a teenager, also grew up in Montreal.
Sleeping was challenging. Drouin would lie awake at night for hours, only thinking about hockey. He would think about the next game or what happened in the game the day before. Those thoughts forced him to replay an entire game in his head. Every single sequence that he was involved in played in his mind as if it were on a continuous loop that could only be interrupted when he realized he only had two hours to sleep before practice.
Opening up about anxiety and undergoing therapy were the first steps toward personal happiness, Drouin said. He found pleasure professionally the past two years in Montreal as well. The organization went through sweeping changes that led to the Canadiens hiring Kent Hughes as their general manager with Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Martin St. Louis becoming head coach.
There were opportunities elsewhere. Walsh said that there were"multiple teams with offers on the table and all for more money" while Drouin pondered his future."He was very motivated to reunite with Nate," Walsh said."Nate was texting him and calling him several times a day, pushing him to come to Denver and to come together again."
Several stories have been shared about MacKinnon's intense nature. One came when Burakovsky joined the Avalanche after he was traded from the. MacKinnon spent part of the offseason examining Burakovsky's statistics and advised him to shoot more. Burakovsky recorded his first 20-goal season while scoring what was then a career-best 45 points over 58 games of the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season.
What Drouin said about MacKinnon on a recent Friday afternoon backs that up. MacKinnon missed practice that day because he wasn't in Denver or Colorado. He was home in Halifax, where the Mooseheads retired his number.
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