Colorado Avalanche: Will Nathan MacKinnon Have a Career Year?

Can center Nathan MacKinnon translate his World Cup success into a career season for the Colorado Avalanche?

Center Nathan MacKinnon is the highest draft pick the Colorado Avalanche has ever had, being chosen first-overall in 2013. The team had never had such a high pick before nor since.

As former Avalanche Alex Tanguay once observed, where you go in the draft, though, is all about what you did before. MacKinnon, of course, was spectacular — a pure goal scorer with high velocity speed.

MacKinnon followed that first-overall draft selection with a rookie performance good enough to win him the Calder Trophy. Since then, though, he’s been as inconsistent as anyone else on the team. He followed his 63-point rookie season (24 goals, 39 assists) with a 38-point season (14 goals, 24 assists) and a 52-point season (21 goals, 31 assists). Both those years were shortened by injury.

Despite those numbers, the Colorado Avalanche has shown confidence in Nathan MacKinnon. He became an restricted free agent this summer, and the team awarded him not a bridge contract, but juicy one — seven years with an annual average value of $6.3 million. During the 2018-19 season, he’s set to break the Matt Duchene salary ceiling and become the highest paid player on the team.

After signing his contract, MacKinnon stated that he definitely felt the “pressure” of the team’s belief in him. He added that it was also time for him to take on more of a leadership role.

More About Nathan MacKinnon:

That’s all old news. Let’s get to the good stuff — that filthy overtime goal Nathan MacKinnon scored on Henrik Lundqvist:

This is pure poetry pic.twitter.com/dP5GfQj0LN

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) September 21, 2016

In case you need the context, MacKinnon was named to Team North America for the World Cup of Hockey. Comprised of some of the brightest young talent in the NHL, Team North America has made a respectable showing at the World Cup.

A little more context, in case you need it. Henrik Lundqvist isn’t your run-of-the-mill goalie. He’s not just an NHL goalie. He’s considered one of the elite goalies in the elite group of NHL goalies. And MacK made him look foolish.

As you can see above, MacKinnon has been making a more than respectable showing overall. Nathan is second only to Johnny Gaudreau in scopring with three points in three games — two goals and an assist. During the preliminary round, he also scored a sweet shootout goal:

MacK has hands — soft hands. We’ve always thought of him as being lethal because of his speed, but look at those moves.

I really don’t care about the World Cup of Hockey. However, Nathan MacKinnon is a Colorado Avalanche. During his World Cup time, he’s displayed the poise and confidence of an elite player.

Can he translate that into a career season? I think it’s a possibility. He needs to not only replicate his rookie year showing but bust it wide open. We’re talking at least 70 points.

It took center Matt Duchene seven seasons to break the 30-goal barrier. Can MacK Daddy do it in four? Let’s call the gauntlet thrown.