Nathan MacKinnon, now one of the NHL’s elite players, admitted he once feared the Colorado Avalanche would trade him because of his struggles and lack of a professional approach to the game.
While the Avalanche won their first title in more than 20 years back in 2022 under the leadership of Nathan MacKinnon, the forward wasn't sure about his future in Denver because of his underwhelming early years in the league.
So mach so, in fact, that "Nate Dogg" went as far as believing a trade was in the franchise's consideration.
“It was like, ‘I have to turn my career around here, or they’re going to trade me,’” MacKinnon told The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus.
The No. 1 overall pick of the 2013 draft, MacKinnon appeared in all 82 games as a rookie, scoring 63 points, but failed to reach that mark in each of the next three seasons.
By the summer of 2017, after Colorado had finished dead last in the NHL, MacKinnon was a four-year veteran still searching for his breakthrough, although he had started to show some glimpses of what was coming by getting his first All-Star nod.
Looking back to those times, MacKinnon acknowledged his shortcomings.
“I wasn’t a pro,” MacKinnon said. “I didn’t know how to treat my body, work on my game, do all the little things away from the rink to have success on the ice.
”I had a lot of figuring out to do.”
After making that shift, however, MacKinnon had a true career-best season (at that point) in 2017-18, where he exploded for 97 points in 74 games.
Since then, MacKinnon has been one of the league’s most dominant forces, averaging over 1.4 points per game and capturing the Hart Trophy last season.
Most recently, MacKinnon became just the 100th player in NHL history to break the 1000-point barrier, doing so in just 857 regular-season games.
-1740535398-q80.webp "Steve Smith says Australia would have changed Champions Trophy XI for rain-affected match")
-1738818633-q80.webp "Boston Red Sox Showing Interest in $260 Million Future Hall of Famer")