The No. 1 pick of the 2011 draft has been through quite a bit in his NHL career -- but now has his team on the precipice of the Stanley Cup Final.
"I make mistakes. I make mistakes, for sure," he said, laughing."But you try to limit them. I try to play as smart as I can."After Draisaitl joked that Nugent-Hopkins was"a coach's favorite hockey player in the world," the Oilers' current coach agreed that there are times when the Edmonton forward is in fact his favorite player in the world.
The first time Nugent-Hopkins put on an Edmonton Oilers jersey was at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Devils won the lottery that year, but the Oilers, still mired in a multiyear rebuild, retained the first pick with the league's worst record . Nugent-Hopkins was the second consecutive top pick for Edmonton, which picked winger Taylor Hall No. 1 in 2010. He arrived in Edmonton with, Magnus Paajarvi and Hall already in place; the next two drafts would yield Nail Yakupov, the Oilers' third straight No. 1 pick, and
"But it also makes you hungry to make the most of these opportunities. You understand that it's not that easy to make the playoffs. Then when you get a chance, you've got to be hungry for it." "It's something that I've definitely taken a lot of pride in over the years. Worked on both sides of the puck. I want to be relied upon in those situations. You've got to be dialed in at all times," Nugent-Hopkins said."Sometimes the power play can make the difference. Sometimes the PK can make the difference. And sometimes it's 5-on-5. I want to keep improving on both sides of it and see where we can get.
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