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🡭 Nathan MacKinnon sitting in his stall after getting eliminated from his first playoff series, in his first NHL season | 30.04.2014

#colorado avalanche #avs lb #nhl #nhl hockey #hockey #real hockey cw #getty #game photo #dewatermarked #john leyba #nathan mackinnon

In a Sunday matchup between the New York Islanders and Colorado Avalanche, jam-packed with storylines, Jonathan Drouin’s return to Colorado is perhaps the most fascinating. Not because he spent his entire career with the Avs, but because the fit was exactly what the Avs needed for two years. And more notably, he didn’t want to leave. “He (MacKinnon) brought me here. One of the main reasons why I came here was him. It felt it was a very close group over there, kind of sucked to leave, but some of those things happen,” Drouin said.

“It sucked. Sometimes you gotta make decisions for your family or other reasons,” Drouin said following morning skate about having to depart via free agency. “I enjoyed my time in Colorado. I would’ve loved to stay here for the rest of my career, but the business side doesn’t allow it sometimes.” “But again, you look at your options, you look at different things, and you got to make decisions sometimes for yourself a little bit more, and for my family as well …,” Drouin said. “Those decisions are not easy. They’re not fun talks with teammates and telling them you’re going to be leaving, but it’s part of the business we’re in and it’s part of the game we’re playing.”

The Avalanche’s front office and Drouin had conversations leading up to July 1 about trying to find a way to keep him here. But it wasn’t a fit. Drouin likely wanted to get paid as a top-six forward, but the Avs didn’t have a spot for him with Gabe Landeskog’s return a sudden reality. Had he stayed, Drouin likely would’ve slotted into the Victor Olofsson role as a depth two-way scorer who can pitch in on the power play. But there was no way the Avs could’ve paid him the two years, $8 million he got from the Islanders to play in that spot. His two-way play added to his value. “Soon after joining us, he really dug in on the defensive side of things, and was a highly regarded defensive player for us, too,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “You have to be in this league if you’re going to play top line minutes with top guys. You’re going to face a lot of other top lines. So you have to round out your game and become a better defensive player. And he did that and earned a lot of trust with me.”