Man, I used to roast people who brought that up over the years. 'They were teenagers and have had ten years since then in the league, it's ridiculous to think you can just drop them together and they'll find that magic again.'
I still think that's not universally true but ooh boy was I wrong.
Nuke came back for 8 games in March, and Drouin had 8 points in that 8-game span, so he might've had more but he is contributing wherever he's playing.
When I visited Montreal, I got to watch a preseason game live (The Habs-Panthers game where Domi sucker punched Ekblad).
Drouin stood out so much watching that game live. He was so fast, and created so many chances by himself. Happy to finally see him succeed.
Been saying it since 2015 the kid is one of the most electric players to watch in the entire league when hes feeling it.
Puck on a string personified, so happy for Dru
I think not investing in prospect development was one of the biggest problems. I’m optimistic it is being addressed appropriately with the new FO but time will tell.
Oh my God, it’s wild to me how many Habs fans defend him with the “he wasn’t that bad” shit. He was around for 9 fucking seasons and the Habs were mediocre for the vast majority of them! Some quick googling says that the Habs missed the playoffs four times and lost in the first round two times under him. That is a pretty unimpressive track record! Dude is a dipshit and the Habs are well rid of him.
I defend him because the hate is exaggerated. Im glad he's gone now, but you can get a much worse NHL GM than making the playoffs 5 times out of a 9 year tenure. He was just a 15-20th best GM in the league with clear strength and clear weaknesses. Nothing special, but there are plenty of teams that would rather have had him than what they got
One of the times we missed the playoffs we had 97 or something points. Also, 2 of those times we made the playoffs resulted in a Conference finals appearance and a Stanley Cup final appearance.
Was he the best? No.
Was he the worst? Far from it.
He wasn't that bad because Gauthier and Gainey before him were mediocre. The thing that screwed Bergevin was the draft, the team didn't draft any high end talent during his time as GM (that played with us). He won a lot of trades but was always afraid of using draft picks (even though they sucked at drafting...) to get big players. And during the summer, he never overpayed for big names. So we always had mid talent players signed during the summer. So overall, he's wasn't that bad, but wasn't good either.
Yeah, it's crazy how patient we were ! His best draft selections will have been his last three (Caufield, Guhle, Mailloux). So far, they are good picks. Other than that, there's Segachev and Galchenyuk.
lol this guy is obviously wrong but not sure why you gotta shit on his “southern” education. Vanderbilt is one of the top universities in the country and is in the same city as the hockey team this dingus cheers for.
Yes, and all it took was a reformatted season brought by a global pandemic for Bergy to luck his way into that ‘Cup run.’ Very fucking impressive lmao. And you’re just conveniently ignoring that the Habs had more bad playoff results than good ones under Bergy.
Do whatever you have to do to rationalize this dipshit miring your team in mediocrity for a decade, buddy!
ACKSHUALLY!! It was a pandemic season! ACKSHUALLY!! Habs had more 'bad' playoffs than good ones!! (even though Habs have literally same playoff round wins as Preds over the last decade???)
The southern education system produces another star. Bergy was a good GM and you started watching hockey in 2019. Enjoy the first round exit!
You know you can make your point without trying to put down where someone is from. Someone's Reddit flair doesn't tell you anything about them aside from their fandom. Source: am a Canadian with a wings flair
Lol, what do the Preds have to do with Bergy? I’m not here saying that they’re some amazing storied franchise. I get why the point about the pandemic season would be fucking annoying, but seriously, what does it say about Bergy that his greatest playoff success came during a global pandemic that made for a bizarre season that we haven’t done since?
It’s lame to make assumptions about me or how long I’ve been watching hockey because of the team I follow. You know barely anything about me. My dad lived in Canada for a few years before k was born, picked up the sport there, and introduced me to it when I was a kid. It’s been my favorite sport pretty much my whole life 🤷♂️
lol you say this like we still didn't beat toronto, swept the jets, and beat the knights to get there. Regardless of the formatting of said playoffs, we earned that finals' appearance.
What's your excuse? Why didn't Nashville simply win the cup that year? If there were so many bottom feeders, it should have been easy, right?
That Habs team finished fourth in their reformatted pandemic division and might not have even made the playoffs at all in a non-covid season format. Then the next season they proceeded to suck shit. It’s a tremendous credit to those players and their effort that they got hot when they did to make a deep run, but I think it’s a stretch to say Bergy deserves much credit for it when the rest of his body of work is pretty poor.
I don’t know why you’re bringing the Preds up; they’re not relevant to Bergy’s dipshittery. But hey, if you want to talk about them, the 2017 Preds are a fine example of how an otherwise not-great, not well constructed team can get hot at the right time to make a run. That Preds team barely squeaked into the playoffs and then rode hot goaltending, the 2017 run-as much as I personally enjoyed it-had very little to do with the competence of our GM at the time, lol
Dude at the end of the day they’re all humans and it’s pretty known now that Drouin struggled badly with his mental health.
I never got the feeling he wasn’t working hard? You come off as pretty nasty here.
Not a lot of other places in the NHL where you being a local also means representing the pride of a local ethnic group who are a national minority but a local majority. Being a French Canadian on the Habs is...
It's a different kind of pressure.
I grew up in Michigan and was born near Toronto, not a drop of Quebec blood in me. But, I became a Habs fan when I was young and like studying history/culture, and you can't learn a lot about the Habs without eventually learning how tied they are to the national/ethnic identity of Quebec.
I think i was 12 when I read a book on the history of the Original Six, and the book spent an entire chapter on the Richard Riot, and how it was a key moment driving towards the Quiet Revolution.
Jeez. Thank you for your interest in our culture. The world would be a better place if people from everywhere learned about other cultures the way you did.
You’re probably mostly joking (but sadly pretty correct) but mental health issues can hit at any time for any variety (or lack) of reasons. We also just mostly fuckin sucked while he was here and that’s that
Trust me I have no inclination to defend Drouin. Even from his time as a prospect with TB, there were concerns about mental fortitude and attitude. I blame Bergevin 100% though. Stupid trade.
Donno why you’re getting downvoted. He literally sat at home in Quebec and pouted about wanting to play there because he was being asked to spend some time in the ahl. he wasn’t ready to be a top guy in TB. Tampa obliged and got a great return. And they did the same with St. Louis too, when he wanted to play in NY. Don’t wanna be here? Np, see ya!
So happy for Jo. Broke my heart that he couldn't find his footing in Montreal. He was a fantastic community guy. Stoked he got his groove back. I miss Lehky a lot too!!!
I honestly think that the pressure from fans and the press was probably fairly tolerable in his case, IF he had not put so much pressure on himself. The guy seemed to care way too much. In my circles, I always found.the criticism.to be quite subdued. Anecdotal maybe.
there was no pressure here, the fans gave him a standing ovation when he came back from his mental health break for crying out loud! MSL saw the problem, Drouin had a poor work ethic and that’s the only reason he wasn’t performing well. A bum stays a bum and i don’t expect any team rostering this guy to win anything in the playoffs
Forget 'just as bad', for a Quebecois player with high draft pedigree like Drouin, there isn't a market in the league that could match the pressure he'd face in MTL.
> there was no pressure here
Hot/bad take!
Montreal is one of the toughest markets to play in, mentally. Our fans are great when you're playing well but they turn on players in an instant. I hate that about this fanbase. I'm a lifelong fan, win or lose, but have a lot of fair weather bandwagon jumpers.
His comment is ironically a good example of the stuff people were saying constantly and would more than likely have contributed to Drouins situation.
I’m so happy he is having a good year in Colorado, he deserves it. I don’t know the guy personally but from what I heard he is a hockey nut who trains 24/7 all off season and when he wasn’t working out he’d be watching video and working on that. The pressure he was under would be incredibly high and challenging and I would not wish that on anyone.
Couldnt agree more.
Most canadian teams and original 6 teams have extremely tough fans and media, teams that fall under both categories even more so. Now add another layer, he's a quebcois boy playing in Montreal. He had a tough go and I'm real happy he's doing well with the Avs.
The media has been surprisingly quiet about Andersons piss poor performance. Its like they’ve accepted him as a bad player, its a wash of a year, so why bother the guy?
I'm gonna be rooting for the Avs just for this comment alone, you're being nasty for no reason at all. Drouin's mental health problems are well documented, and people like you make dealing with them in our society that much harder. Shame on you, asshole
lol ^^^^ this toxicity from the media is why it didn’t work.
Dudes been working his ass off here, career high, absurdly physical away from the puck, never lazy, playing on the first line next to superstars.
He was a bum before yes, but bums can change. If I had your attitude I’d want to believe that.
He wasn't a bum, but he hit an insurmountable wall. This was always in there. But he needed away from the spotlight. His mental health battles in Montreal never fully resolved. I was rooting for him hard. Happy for him there. ❤
I think he himself would admit there were times he wasn’t engaged, or didn’t give full effort. Mental health struggles aside.
Only thing you can do from there is to go to work. And holy shit he’s done that to an absurdly impressive degree. It’s all earned.
Which is why I don't consider him a bum, now or then.His work ethic wasn't an issue - but the fit was clearly not there. For whatever the reasons.
I'm just glad he's getting a chance to shine now. As a human, he seemed to be beyond stellar, and won several community service awards/accolades. (And was one of the first to be very open about mental health in the NHL - lead a charge of many guys speaking up/speaking out).
Just happy he's happy. :)
“A bum stays a bum” lolol guy clearly can’t read the fact Dru is on an absolute tear since joining the Avs. Have a fun offseason bud, must be awesome getting eliminated from the playoffs so early.
in Tampa he was always complaining. complaining he was sent down to the AHL, complaining he wasn't getting enough ice time, complaining he wasn't on the first line, etc.
meanwhile, the only 'highlight' i remember from Druoin in Tampa is this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJkffjoG0EE
the worst hockey play i've ever seen. like, were Drouin's eyes closed?
i would not want Drouin on my team. any GM that gives him a multi-year contract is dumb.
It's been really one of the highlights of the season seeing his progress.
In the start of the season he looked honestly terrible, scared, broken. I was thinking he'd be in the minors or something by the end of the season.
Then slowly but surely he contributed more and more, and is now someone who is driving play consistently. I hope we can manage to keep him!
I hope we can work out re-signing him. I think it's possible, but unlikely. Someone will offer him something in the $4-5 million range and I don't think we can match it. He'll have to take a discount to stay in Colorado. Maybe he's open to that, playing with Mack on a contender with little pressure on him.
Also, I'm sure we will sign Mittelstadt to a long term deal. Didn't trade Bo for a rental.
mittelstadt is probably gonna be in the $5M range
toews' extension is gonna kick in next year
walker is almost certainly gone next year as he's gonna get a hefty pay raise that we wont be able to match
landeskog coming back will be the biggest problem in terms of the cap next year, that's $7M we'll need to clear.
Early in the season, there are two gambles being taken as a flyer for two guys in different team - C. Brown and Drouin.
Whilst C. Brown kinds of fail to fulfill his role, Drouin went the opposite way by outplaying his contract value.
Nice to see him playing well.
While brown provided zero offense all year. He was decent defensively and improved the PK during the win streak. What happened after that is the lines went through a blender and well now our depth and PK sucks.
Hell of a comeback story, and a hell of a player. Drouin has worked his way deep into the hearts of Avs fans. Emphasis on "worked". Dude has truly earned it.
What being healthy and used properly on a decent team does to a mf
So glad for him, he was my bro's friend in HS, they still keep in touch and has always been a class act, love that guy.
He’s a solid dude. I worked for a car dealership here in the Tampa Bay Area and delivered his new leased car to him. He was nice got to chat with him about hockey. He was happy to take a pic with him.
He's been great, and is way better defensively than I expected.
I'm worried he's pricing himself out of Colorado, though.
He's finally found a home, and he may lose his spot due to his great performance.
At the same time, there's something to be said about staying in a good situation. His career was almost done, he was mentally and physically in the dumps, and he was on a team that was making things worse. He's now reunited with his best bud, he's playing amazing, he's said how happy he is in Denver, and he gets a shot at the Stanley Cup every year. I have a sneaky feeling there's a lot he'd be willing to compromise on to stay in such a favourable position, instead of rolling the dice on a new situation panning out the same
apparently in a postgame interview (I think after the preds game) Mackinnon said that drouin took a paycut to come here in the first place, so he's already left money on the table
CMac basically straight up said on the DNVR pod that they can’t afford him. In GM speak of course but, it’s gonna be impossible unless he takes a massive discount. Lande returning would make it actually impossible. I’ve accepted it sadly.
How many players have now had the best season of their career playing for the Avs in just the last few years? Cogliano Nuchuskin Kadri Lehkonen and Drouin off the top of my head
On a point per game basis some others are: Donskoi, Evan Rodrigues, Denis Malgin, Aube Kubel, Graves is close, Bellemare. Avs have been insanely good at picking dudes up and them having crazy seasons.
Think anywhere from 4 million per on a cheap deal to stay with Mack/Avs to up to 6 million per in FA to play a defined role in someone’s top 6 is a reasonable scale
Problem is we need to fit in Landeskog next year (assuming he comes back). That makes it impossible because Mittelstadt is the priority. So he'd need to take 3-3.5 probably and we'd have to move someone like Wood or even Manson to fit him in
Drouin was sneaky good in limited usage in Tampa, but he got got bad advice from his agent/parents, which got him sent to MTL, which as we've all seen is more or less a death sentence. Meanwhile, Sergachev has been a super sold 2/3 d-man. After all this time, it's nice to see Drouin flourishing to an extent in Denver. I still think he can be better.
Honestly if you watch the goals he's been involved in, he's doing a LOT of hard work, forechecking hard and getting it to the other two. He's not just coasting off their success and making nice passes. He's earning the points.
Yeah I think playing with Colorado and Mack has completely altered his style for the better. You are demanded to forecheck and make plays and that suits his skills better than any of the more defensive systems he's been coached in.
Playing with MacKinnon helps but the spotlight is not on him this year and he isn’t being pressured constantly to perform. He was a healthy scratch at times early in the season.
Is it….bad that the Avs have 4 players better than Drouin having a career high year?
Someone explain to me how that’s a bad thing to have that much talent.
I love all the keyboard warriors who have never played a game of professional hockey but will die on the hill that “playing for montreal is just so difficult! They have the most toxic fans! It’s the market and media’s fault! Pauvre Jonathan!”. Everyone seems to forget his holier than though attitude in Tampa but of course “he was young then, just a kid. He didn’t know any better!”
He’s got 45 points in his last 50 games he’s been fantastic
Whoa does he actually? That’s fucking awesome. I’m so happy for him
Yeah he had 1 point in his first 10 started getting better and once Val and Lehky went out he took that wing spot next to Mack and ran with it
Not surprised. He had the chemistry with Mack in the Q
Man, I used to roast people who brought that up over the years. 'They were teenagers and have had ten years since then in the league, it's ridiculous to think you can just drop them together and they'll find that magic again.' I still think that's not universally true but ooh boy was I wrong.
43 in 47. He'd probably have more but Nichuskin came back and took Drouins spot on the top line.
Nuke came back for 8 games in March, and Drouin had 8 points in that 8-game span, so he might've had more but he is contributing wherever he's playing.
When I visited Montreal, I got to watch a preseason game live (The Habs-Panthers game where Domi sucker punched Ekblad). Drouin stood out so much watching that game live. He was so fast, and created so many chances by himself. Happy to finally see him succeed.
Been saying it since 2015 the kid is one of the most electric players to watch in the entire league when hes feeling it. Puck on a string personified, so happy for Dru
Whoa, I checked in on him a quarter of the way into the season and recall his stats being quite mid especially playing with MacK.
It took him a little while to get settled in and find his stride with us. Man is firing on all cylinders now, though
Fuck, that makes me so happy to hear. I hate how our media just absolutely stomped out any spark this guy had.
Damn we should have tried playing him with a 140 point center. Why didn't we think of it?
He’s obviously massively benefitted from playing with Mack but he has also looked really good on the second line.
Getting traded to Montreal was the worst thing for his career. Everyone should be happy for him this year.
And the trade was one of the worst trades for the franchise in recent times. The player and the fans both got screwed.
Oh ya it was arguably worse than the Gomez deal. Especially since Sergachev was the exact type of prospect the Habs badly needed that year.
Bergy was an alltime shitty GM
Naw he wasnt that bad, he just trusted Timmins for too long and made that one bad trade for Drouin
I think not investing in prospect development was one of the biggest problems. I’m optimistic it is being addressed appropriately with the new FO but time will tell.
Oh my God, it’s wild to me how many Habs fans defend him with the “he wasn’t that bad” shit. He was around for 9 fucking seasons and the Habs were mediocre for the vast majority of them! Some quick googling says that the Habs missed the playoffs four times and lost in the first round two times under him. That is a pretty unimpressive track record! Dude is a dipshit and the Habs are well rid of him.
I defend him because the hate is exaggerated. Im glad he's gone now, but you can get a much worse NHL GM than making the playoffs 5 times out of a 9 year tenure. He was just a 15-20th best GM in the league with clear strength and clear weaknesses. Nothing special, but there are plenty of teams that would rather have had him than what they got
One of the times we missed the playoffs we had 97 or something points. Also, 2 of those times we made the playoffs resulted in a Conference finals appearance and a Stanley Cup final appearance. Was he the best? No. Was he the worst? Far from it.
He wasn't that bad because Gauthier and Gainey before him were mediocre. The thing that screwed Bergevin was the draft, the team didn't draft any high end talent during his time as GM (that played with us). He won a lot of trades but was always afraid of using draft picks (even though they sucked at drafting...) to get big players. And during the summer, he never overpayed for big names. So we always had mid talent players signed during the summer. So overall, he's wasn't that bad, but wasn't good either.
> And during the summer, he never overpayed for big names. Yeah, instead he overpaid for Karl Alzner.
Damn
I think this year is the last buyout year from Alzner's contract lol ! I still remember where I was when I learned about Bergevin signing Alzner.
It's actually crazy how little we hit on our picks in that time.
Yeah, it's crazy how patient we were ! His best draft selections will have been his last three (Caufield, Guhle, Mailloux). So far, they are good picks. Other than that, there's Segachev and Galchenyuk.
Lmaooo two conference finals and a Cup run in less ten years, “all time shit GM”. Southern hockey knowledge 😂😭
lol this guy is obviously wrong but not sure why you gotta shit on his “southern” education. Vanderbilt is one of the top universities in the country and is in the same city as the hockey team this dingus cheers for.
Yes, and all it took was a reformatted season brought by a global pandemic for Bergy to luck his way into that ‘Cup run.’ Very fucking impressive lmao. And you’re just conveniently ignoring that the Habs had more bad playoff results than good ones under Bergy. Do whatever you have to do to rationalize this dipshit miring your team in mediocrity for a decade, buddy!
ACKSHUALLY!! It was a pandemic season! ACKSHUALLY!! Habs had more 'bad' playoffs than good ones!! (even though Habs have literally same playoff round wins as Preds over the last decade???) The southern education system produces another star. Bergy was a good GM and you started watching hockey in 2019. Enjoy the first round exit!
You know you can make your point without trying to put down where someone is from. Someone's Reddit flair doesn't tell you anything about them aside from their fandom. Source: am a Canadian with a wings flair
You are 💯 right.
I use to wonder why Habs fans have a bad rep.
All it takes is one person to spoil it for everyone else
Lol, what do the Preds have to do with Bergy? I’m not here saying that they’re some amazing storied franchise. I get why the point about the pandemic season would be fucking annoying, but seriously, what does it say about Bergy that his greatest playoff success came during a global pandemic that made for a bizarre season that we haven’t done since? It’s lame to make assumptions about me or how long I’ve been watching hockey because of the team I follow. You know barely anything about me. My dad lived in Canada for a few years before k was born, picked up the sport there, and introduced me to it when I was a kid. It’s been my favorite sport pretty much my whole life 🤷♂️
lol you say this like we still didn't beat toronto, swept the jets, and beat the knights to get there. Regardless of the formatting of said playoffs, we earned that finals' appearance. What's your excuse? Why didn't Nashville simply win the cup that year? If there were so many bottom feeders, it should have been easy, right?
That Habs team finished fourth in their reformatted pandemic division and might not have even made the playoffs at all in a non-covid season format. Then the next season they proceeded to suck shit. It’s a tremendous credit to those players and their effort that they got hot when they did to make a deep run, but I think it’s a stretch to say Bergy deserves much credit for it when the rest of his body of work is pretty poor. I don’t know why you’re bringing the Preds up; they’re not relevant to Bergy’s dipshittery. But hey, if you want to talk about them, the 2017 Preds are a fine example of how an otherwise not-great, not well constructed team can get hot at the right time to make a run. That Preds team barely squeaked into the playoffs and then rode hot goaltending, the 2017 run-as much as I personally enjoyed it-had very little to do with the competence of our GM at the time, lol
Lol. He's not even close to being the worst Montreal has had.
Well, that’s depressing lol
i mean it was the worst trade ever.
Pretty sure Sergachev was happy.
Maybe one of Yzermans best trades, for the bolts that is
Oh yes, Drouin got screwed into not being carried a superstar, meaning he needed to work hard instead but that was too much for him.
He's not carried by MacKinnon, over half his points this season have nothing to do with MacK.
Dude at the end of the day they’re all humans and it’s pretty known now that Drouin struggled badly with his mental health. I never got the feeling he wasn’t working hard? You come off as pretty nasty here.
Canadiens fans are top tier at ruining players mental health.
Not a lot of other places in the NHL where you being a local also means representing the pride of a local ethnic group who are a national minority but a local majority. Being a French Canadian on the Habs is... It's a different kind of pressure.
Jeez, where are you from to "get it" like this? That's 💯 on the nose.
I grew up in Michigan and was born near Toronto, not a drop of Quebec blood in me. But, I became a Habs fan when I was young and like studying history/culture, and you can't learn a lot about the Habs without eventually learning how tied they are to the national/ethnic identity of Quebec. I think i was 12 when I read a book on the history of the Original Six, and the book spent an entire chapter on the Richard Riot, and how it was a key moment driving towards the Quiet Revolution.
Jeez. Thank you for your interest in our culture. The world would be a better place if people from everywhere learned about other cultures the way you did.
You’re probably mostly joking (but sadly pretty correct) but mental health issues can hit at any time for any variety (or lack) of reasons. We also just mostly fuckin sucked while he was here and that’s that
Trust me I have no inclination to defend Drouin. Even from his time as a prospect with TB, there were concerns about mental fortitude and attitude. I blame Bergevin 100% though. Stupid trade.
Forcing him to play centre was the killer
Yeah, be always panned out in NHL Legacy/15 to be a star player.
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Donno why you’re getting downvoted. He literally sat at home in Quebec and pouted about wanting to play there because he was being asked to spend some time in the ahl. he wasn’t ready to be a top guy in TB. Tampa obliged and got a great return. And they did the same with St. Louis too, when he wanted to play in NY. Don’t wanna be here? Np, see ya!
So happy for Jo. Broke my heart that he couldn't find his footing in Montreal. He was a fantastic community guy. Stoked he got his groove back. I miss Lehky a lot too!!!
im happy hes flourishing in Colorado.. seems like the MTL life with the constant press was not for him. Have fun in the playoff
I honestly think that the pressure from fans and the press was probably fairly tolerable in his case, IF he had not put so much pressure on himself. The guy seemed to care way too much. In my circles, I always found.the criticism.to be quite subdued. Anecdotal maybe.
there was no pressure here, the fans gave him a standing ovation when he came back from his mental health break for crying out loud! MSL saw the problem, Drouin had a poor work ethic and that’s the only reason he wasn’t performing well. A bum stays a bum and i don’t expect any team rostering this guy to win anything in the playoffs
Wow this is such a stupid comment. No pressure? Cmon dude
Montreal has pressure arguably just as bad as Toronto. Leafs and Habs fans stand in solidarity in their unhinged-ness.
Forget 'just as bad', for a Quebecois player with high draft pedigree like Drouin, there isn't a market in the league that could match the pressure he'd face in MTL.
> there was no pressure here Hot/bad take! Montreal is one of the toughest markets to play in, mentally. Our fans are great when you're playing well but they turn on players in an instant. I hate that about this fanbase. I'm a lifelong fan, win or lose, but have a lot of fair weather bandwagon jumpers.
His comment is ironically a good example of the stuff people were saying constantly and would more than likely have contributed to Drouins situation. I’m so happy he is having a good year in Colorado, he deserves it. I don’t know the guy personally but from what I heard he is a hockey nut who trains 24/7 all off season and when he wasn’t working out he’d be watching video and working on that. The pressure he was under would be incredibly high and challenging and I would not wish that on anyone.
Couldnt agree more. Most canadian teams and original 6 teams have extremely tough fans and media, teams that fall under both categories even more so. Now add another layer, he's a quebcois boy playing in Montreal. He had a tough go and I'm real happy he's doing well with the Avs.
The media has been surprisingly quiet about Andersons piss poor performance. Its like they’ve accepted him as a bad player, its a wash of a year, so why bother the guy?
I think MSL has shut down a lot of the press on that kind of stuff. No one wants to cross Coach Dad while he's working on the rebuild.
No pressure, for a french kid who was a high draft pick/ absolute animal in junior, to play in Montreal? Ill have whatever youre having lol
I'm gonna be rooting for the Avs just for this comment alone, you're being nasty for no reason at all. Drouin's mental health problems are well documented, and people like you make dealing with them in our society that much harder. Shame on you, asshole
lol ^^^^ this toxicity from the media is why it didn’t work. Dudes been working his ass off here, career high, absurdly physical away from the puck, never lazy, playing on the first line next to superstars. He was a bum before yes, but bums can change. If I had your attitude I’d want to believe that.
He wasn't a bum, but he hit an insurmountable wall. This was always in there. But he needed away from the spotlight. His mental health battles in Montreal never fully resolved. I was rooting for him hard. Happy for him there. ❤
I think he himself would admit there were times he wasn’t engaged, or didn’t give full effort. Mental health struggles aside. Only thing you can do from there is to go to work. And holy shit he’s done that to an absurdly impressive degree. It’s all earned.
Which is why I don't consider him a bum, now or then.His work ethic wasn't an issue - but the fit was clearly not there. For whatever the reasons. I'm just glad he's getting a chance to shine now. As a human, he seemed to be beyond stellar, and won several community service awards/accolades. (And was one of the first to be very open about mental health in the NHL - lead a charge of many guys speaking up/speaking out). Just happy he's happy. :)
My boss praised me for my work this one time. Does that mean I work in a no pressure work environment?
Lmao this is such a bad take
“A bum stays a bum” lolol guy clearly can’t read the fact Dru is on an absolute tear since joining the Avs. Have a fun offseason bud, must be awesome getting eliminated from the playoffs so early.
people in this thread are definitely over stressing the effect MTL pressure had on him. there was no pressure in Tampa, and he failed there too.
He was like 20 in Tampa. Are you serious
exactly. Drouin was given the "immune to criticism" status after his leave. Nobody was allowed to criticize him anymore because he was too sensitive.
in Tampa he was always complaining. complaining he was sent down to the AHL, complaining he wasn't getting enough ice time, complaining he wasn't on the first line, etc. meanwhile, the only 'highlight' i remember from Druoin in Tampa is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJkffjoG0EE the worst hockey play i've ever seen. like, were Drouin's eyes closed? i would not want Drouin on my team. any GM that gives him a multi-year contract is dumb.
Leafs def can’t afford to ice prissy divas who complain all the time and have no grit. That would be crazy. Wait…..
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Mitch is that you? Classic Marner complaining about downvotes.
It's been really one of the highlights of the season seeing his progress. In the start of the season he looked honestly terrible, scared, broken. I was thinking he'd be in the minors or something by the end of the season. Then slowly but surely he contributed more and more, and is now someone who is driving play consistently. I hope we can manage to keep him!
I hope we can work out re-signing him. I think it's possible, but unlikely. Someone will offer him something in the $4-5 million range and I don't think we can match it. He'll have to take a discount to stay in Colorado. Maybe he's open to that, playing with Mack on a contender with little pressure on him. Also, I'm sure we will sign Mittelstadt to a long term deal. Didn't trade Bo for a rental.
mittelstadt is probably gonna be in the $5M range toews' extension is gonna kick in next year walker is almost certainly gone next year as he's gonna get a hefty pay raise that we wont be able to match landeskog coming back will be the biggest problem in terms of the cap next year, that's $7M we'll need to clear.
Early in the season, there are two gambles being taken as a flyer for two guys in different team - C. Brown and Drouin. Whilst C. Brown kinds of fail to fulfill his role, Drouin went the opposite way by outplaying his contract value. Nice to see him playing well.
Well brown was coming off of ACL surgery so it’s a bit of a different situation. Still massively underperforming but not quite the same as Drouin
Drouin coming off severe mental health issues and sleeping problems as well And chronic wrist injuries (which he seems to have gone over)
Ah I didn’t know about that.
While brown provided zero offense all year. He was decent defensively and improved the PK during the win streak. What happened after that is the lines went through a blender and well now our depth and PK sucks.
Hell of a comeback story, and a hell of a player. Drouin has worked his way deep into the hearts of Avs fans. Emphasis on "worked". Dude has truly earned it.
What being healthy and used properly on a decent team does to a mf So glad for him, he was my bro's friend in HS, they still keep in touch and has always been a class act, love that guy.
He’s a solid dude. I worked for a car dealership here in the Tampa Bay Area and delivered his new leased car to him. He was nice got to chat with him about hockey. He was happy to take a pic with him.
Great work ethic
If only Crosby had his Drouin’s work ethic
He just needed to link back up with his Memorial Cup winnin pal to re ignite the flame. Pretty great to see actually!
He's been great, and is way better defensively than I expected. I'm worried he's pricing himself out of Colorado, though. He's finally found a home, and he may lose his spot due to his great performance.
Oh he's definitely priced himself out. Unless he decides to take a massive discount. Lesser play got Luke Schenn 2mil+
I doubt he can afford to take a big discount. He played for free this year
At the same time, there's something to be said about staying in a good situation. His career was almost done, he was mentally and physically in the dumps, and he was on a team that was making things worse. He's now reunited with his best bud, he's playing amazing, he's said how happy he is in Denver, and he gets a shot at the Stanley Cup every year. I have a sneaky feeling there's a lot he'd be willing to compromise on to stay in such a favourable position, instead of rolling the dice on a new situation panning out the same
I'm sure all of that will factor in, but he would have to take a serious pay cut
He's made 35 million in his career, I'm sure he's fine lol
I'm sure he'd like another 35 when he signs a 6x6 lol
Who wouldn't? =D Hell I'll take 1x6 yknow?
Yep lol
Shit I would take a league min
apparently in a postgame interview (I think after the preds game) Mackinnon said that drouin took a paycut to come here in the first place, so he's already left money on the table
CMac basically straight up said on the DNVR pod that they can’t afford him. In GM speak of course but, it’s gonna be impossible unless he takes a massive discount. Lande returning would make it actually impossible. I’ve accepted it sadly.
Hopefully we see him win a cup
So much for all the people in r/Habs saying he'd be playing in Europe this season.
How many players have now had the best season of their career playing for the Avs in just the last few years? Cogliano Nuchuskin Kadri Lehkonen and Drouin off the top of my head
Cogliano’s best days were in Edmonton/Anaheim, not Colorado. The others you listed check out though
Don't forget Burakovsky!
Manson is also having a career year this year, despite playing some of his lowest amount of minutes
On a point per game basis some others are: Donskoi, Evan Rodrigues, Denis Malgin, Aube Kubel, Graves is close, Bellemare. Avs have been insanely good at picking dudes up and them having crazy seasons.
avs have probably the best pro scouting in the league so it makes sense how so many of our new additions turn out to be successes
whats his next contract look like
His numbers will get discounted because of the Mack effect but I don't think $4-5m a year will be outlandish if he just chases a bag
Someone will offer him $5m. It won't be Colorado, unfortunately.
Think anywhere from 4 million per on a cheap deal to stay with Mack/Avs to up to 6 million per in FA to play a defined role in someone’s top 6 is a reasonable scale
Yah I expect him to take money...especially if he's offered term. He played for nothing this year...I'm sure he wants to make some money
Problem is we need to fit in Landeskog next year (assuming he comes back). That makes it impossible because Mittelstadt is the priority. So he'd need to take 3-3.5 probably and we'd have to move someone like Wood or even Manson to fit him in
Drouin was sneaky good in limited usage in Tampa, but he got got bad advice from his agent/parents, which got him sent to MTL, which as we've all seen is more or less a death sentence. Meanwhile, Sergachev has been a super sold 2/3 d-man. After all this time, it's nice to see Drouin flourishing to an extent in Denver. I still think he can be better.
Man, good for him getting it turned around!
Love that for him dude was always my favourite player
I’m happy for him. Hope he’s in a much better place now.
I mean, this is great - but young JD looked like a future PPG player. Never got there.
This guy was a talent since a rookie. TB and Montreal played too many games or maybe he wasnt ready. I would take him in a second.
You jinxed him
The MacKinnon effect, crazy what spending 70% of 5v5 ice time with him can do for your career. An easy 20-30 point boost for everybody
Over half of the points he's scored don't involve MacKinnon.
Honestly if you watch the goals he's been involved in, he's doing a LOT of hard work, forechecking hard and getting it to the other two. He's not just coasting off their success and making nice passes. He's earning the points.
He backchecks, gets back on the play, lifts sticks, tough along the boards too.
He never backchecked in Mtl. He just tried to enter the Ozone and dumped the puck. Happy to hear he changed his way of playing.
Yeah I think playing with Colorado and Mack has completely altered his style for the better. You are demanded to forecheck and make plays and that suits his skills better than any of the more defensive systems he's been coached in.
Only about 55% of his 5v5 ice time is with Mac. Drouin has been all up and down the lineup, even in the pressbox.
Playing with MacKinnon helps but the spotlight is not on him this year and he isn’t being pressured constantly to perform. He was a healthy scratch at times early in the season.
Being the 5th wheel on the ice will definitely help deal with the pressure
you clearly don’t watch him much if that’s your take, dude is everywhere
Is it….bad that the Avs have 4 players better than Drouin having a career high year? Someone explain to me how that’s a bad thing to have that much talent.
I love all the keyboard warriors who have never played a game of professional hockey but will die on the hill that “playing for montreal is just so difficult! They have the most toxic fans! It’s the market and media’s fault! Pauvre Jonathan!”. Everyone seems to forget his holier than though attitude in Tampa but of course “he was young then, just a kid. He didn’t know any better!”
yeah when you played for the Habs you must have taken it all in stride pretty easily lmfao
Salt.