Jo Drouin is Adam Oates?

[More 2004]

He's going to be traded to Toronto?

So Drouin will also play for the Leafs?

Of course was there any other option? SY is going to go with them too.

 

[zeykshade]

He's at over a 40 point pace playing 12-13 minutes a night as a 19 year-old... you think he won't improve?

Hey man, he "stands by his analysis". So just tell those Al Murray and Steve Yzerman guys to **** right the hell off, eh?

 

[rh71]

I remember seeing Drouin play with MacKinnon - they would dominate shifts like I've never seen. I even thought he was better than MacKinnon the way he would control the play and the puck. What a difference now playing with men.

 

[izzy]

Always thought and said he was better than MackInnon. Still stand behind the statement.

I'm with you, Drouin was more impressive in Halifax IMO. His game just takes more tweaking to fit the NHL than Mackinnons.

 

[These Are The Days]

Coach has him playing with grinders most of the time. Jon is doing great all things considered. He will pan out. Jon already does ridiculous puck wizardry on a nightly basis. It never gets talked about because it never leads to a goal

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

has he had a silly amount of plastic surgery like Oates too>?

 

[glovesave_35]

McKenzie: Nathan MacKinnon 'destined for superstardom sooner rather than later'

So basically not significantly more praise than any other 1st overall drafted forward gets. Vague quotes like "the sky is the limit" and "he can be one of the very best" both stop shy of comparing him to Crosby or anointing him the next best player in the world.

 

[Voight]

I'm with you, Drouin was more impressive in Halifax IMO. His game just takes more tweaking to fit the NHL than Mackinnons.

He was definitely the better player, MackInnon just got more hype. Drouin just needs to fill out a bit more, he's also on a top team so its harder to find ice time. MackInnon joined a basement Avs team and was in the top 6 right off the bat, like someone said here Cooper makes his young guys earn their time.

 

[obey86]

If you're not watching Lightning games, it's hard to have a full grasp on how Drouin's being eased in and how he's played. Last year, most Lightning fans would have told you Kucherov might explode as soon as he's let off the leash, and we're seeing that this year. The same is true for Drouin. Cooper rewards players in very small increments. Drouin has shown a flash or two of brilliance in most of the games he's played this year, and lately he looks like more of a threat to shoot whereas earlier in the year it seemed to not even cross his mind.

With a spot on the PP and budding confidence, it wouldn't be all that shocking to see Drouin finish with > 20 points in the last 32 games. He scores at a ppg pace when he plays 15 minutes or more.

Sounds like the same approach the Red Wings take with most of their young players. Opposing fanbases don't get it.

He'll be a beast soon enough. And with the McKinnon comparison...making the NHL and producing at an earlier age doesn't mean you will be better the rest of your career.

 

[DFC]

Sounds like the same approach the Red Wings take with most of their young players. Opposing fanbases don't get it.

He'll be a beast soon enough. And with the McKinnon comparison...making the NHL and producing at an earlier age doesn't mean you will be better the rest of your career.

Yeah, people who are saying his game hasn't translated probably aren't watching. For TB fans, it's actually been pretty shocking just how well his game has translated, and how much of what he was doing in junior works at the NHL level. To be honest, I think most of us didn't expect him to be able to pull off what he pulls off this quickly.

A few things need to happen, IMO, before Drouin will start scoring at a big rate.

The first is, #obviously, he needs more icetime and he needs it more consistently. Cooper is nudging him up over 15 minutes per game lately and Drouin has responded very well. (He scores at a ppg pace when he plays over 15 minutes.)

The second is he needs to be a bigger threat to shoot. There are times where he looks like shooting the puck hasn't even crossed his mind. This is also something he's working out and lately he's firing a lot more.

Finally, his teammates need to realize he can find them from absolutely anywhere in the offensive zone. It's frustrating to watch a brilliant pass go to waste because somebody didn't have their stick on the ice, or they did have their stick on the ice and the puck bounces harmlessly off because the shooter wasn't ready. It's happened a lot. Sometimes I think he mesmerizes his teammates as much as his opponents. I wonder if that was the case early in his Halifax career.

 

[tucker3434]

He was definitely the better player, MackInnon just got more hype. Drouin just needs to fill out a bit more, he's also on a top team so its harder to find ice time. MackInnon joined a basement Avs team and was in the top 6 right off the bat, like someone said here Cooper makes his young guys earn their time.

None of that is how any of this works. Drouin didn't fly under the radar. Every scout evaluated him right along with MacKinnon. It's pretty easy to do when they're on the same line.

And MacKinnon started on the 3rd line. If you're able to find game logs, he was probably getting about the same 13 min of ice time drouin is getting. He worked his way into the top 6 later in the season. So wrong again.

 

[zeykshade]

None of that is how any of this works. Drouin didn't fly under the radar. Every scout evaluated him right along with MacKinnon. It's pretty easy to do when they're on the same line.

And MacKinnon started on the 3rd line. If you're able to find game logs, he was probably getting about the same 13 min of ice time drouin is getting. He worked his way into the top 6 later in the season. So wrong again.

MacKinnon averaged 17:21 / game his rookie year.
Drouin is clocking 13:28 / game.

Biggest difference is the shooting. MacKinnon is a shooter, Drouin isn't. If he can work on that part of his game, he'll be even more dangerous and make those around him even better.

TOI Game Log for MacKinnon 13-14:
G TOI
1 15:30
2 17:14
3 10:28
4 10:14
5 13:52
6 14:29
7 14:53
8 13:58
9 10:54
10 13:16
11 14:19
12 16:46
13 16:00
14 20:18
15 17:20
16 16:20
17 17:50
18 19:51
19 17:14
20 17:47
21 17:49
22 17:01
23 17:58
24 16:02
25 15:39
26 16:23
27 17:28
28 19:24
29 18:45
30 16:15
31 18:54
32 14:47
33 16:59
34 16:01
35 16:39
36 21:18
37 16:04
38 18:08
39 16:23
40 13:44
41 15:44
42 14:28
43 18:14
44 18:37
45 19:28
46 17:14
47 18:28
48 16:03
49 14:29
50 16:35
51 16:09
52 13:49
53 17:25
54 16:48
55 19:13
56 14:39
57 18:41
58 14:56
59 19:45
60 16:40
61 19:16
62 17:55
63 20:07
64 16:13
65 21:25
66 20:07
67 21:13
68 19:36
69 20:55
70 18:30
71 23:18
72 18:31
73 20:00
74 19:03
75 19:03
76 23:51
77 15:37
78 23:14
79 17:24
80 20:31
81 19:30
82 19:15

 

[tucker3434]

MacKinnon averaged 17:21 / game his rookie year.
Drouin is clocking 13:28 / game.

Biggest difference is the shooting. MacKinnon is a shooter, Drouin isn't. If he can work on that part of his game, he'll be even more dangerous and make those around him even better.

I was just refuting the ridiculous statement that MacKinnon was just given a top 6 role. He didn't start off getting that time. He earned it. At the beginning there were games he was getting about 10 min a night.

Also not sure why success by one member of the 2013 class has to come at the expense of the others. I don't know why a drouin thread had to turn into a MacKinnon comparison thread.

 

[zeykshade]

I was just refuting the ridiculous statement that MacKinnon was just given a top 6 role. He didn't start off getting that time. He earned it. At the beginning there were games he was getting about 10 min a night.

Also not sure why success by one member of the 2013 class has to come at the expense of the others. I don't know why a drouin thread had to turn into a MacKinnon comparison thread.

Yeah, for about 11 games.

 

[tucker3434]

Yeah, for about 11 games.

Well, maybe that's all he needed. He finished 35th in the NHL in points, so I'd say he earned his top 6 spot.

 

[zeykshade]

Well, maybe that's all he needed. He finished 35th in the NHL in points, so I'd say he earned his top 6 spot.

There were a total of 3 games where he was given 10minutes a night. Maybe he did earn it, maybe the Avs have a different philosophy, maybe the shooter's game fits better immediately at the NHL lvl and maybe the team he played on wasn't as deep as the one Drouin plays on or as defensively / puck possession minded.

 

[DFC]

I was just refuting the ridiculous statement that MacKinnon was just given a top 6 role. He didn't start off getting that time. He earned it. At the beginning there were games he was getting about 10 min a night.

Also not sure why success by one member of the 2013 class has to come at the expense of the others. I don't know why a drouin thread had to turn into a MacKinnon comparison thread.

I don't think anyone's trying to take anything away from what Nate did last year. He had a great year. But there are more than a few people thinking Drouin is having a bad year this year, when the truth is it's very, very hard for rookies to earn responsibility under Jon Cooper. (Palat and Johnson were the exception, not the rule--it took a broken leg to Steven Stamkos and then a month long scoring slump for them to get their minutes boosted last year.)

When Drouin gets minutes, he puts up points. His defensive game is also coming along nicely. About a year from now he's finally going to be put into a main offensive role and people will wonder where his explosion in production came from. Same thing that just happened with Kucherov. This is Cooper's way. Sometimes it's frustrating, and it was particularly frustrating earlier in the year, but now we're seeing Drouin finally being handed more and more responsibility.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Of course it doesn't, but it just goes to show that people can have skewed perceptions of players when they struggle for a little while. If you asked people last season who is going to be the better player, after MacKinnon just won the Calder putting up 60+ points while Drouin was sent back down to junior (A good decision, by the way), I don't believe very many people would have said Drouin.

Now, people see MacKinnon struggling a bit and are ready to place Drouin above him.

Speaking for myself I always rated Drouin higher than Mack.

 

[Alexdaman]

Come on guys its his first year, its irrelevant since he is producing anyways.