Ex-Canadiens winger Jonathan Drouin thriving with Avalanche
It looks like a change of scenery is exactly what ex-Montreal Canadiens winger Jonathan Drouin needed to resurrect his career.
The former 2013 third-overall draft pick is thriving with the Colorado Avalanche, having scored 10 points in the last 10 games and logging some serious minutes on the team’s top line. Through 36 games this season, Drouin has six goals and 18 points and is well on his way to his most productive season since 2018-19.
He has done this all while riding shotgun beside former Halifax Mooseheads teammate Nathan MacKinnon as well as Mikko Rantanen.
Colorado forward Jonathan Drouin is on fire. 10 points in his last 10 games. Heās 1+1 tonight with 21:38 TOI. Hereās his cross seam pass for the helper just as the PP expired. pic.twitter.com/1eBsIqzBXq
— Allan Walshš (@walsha) January 3, 2024
Perhaps more notable than Drouin’s production is the amount of ice time that the Avalanche are entrusting to the 28-year-old. He played over 21 minutes in each of his last two games and even reached a whopping 25 minutes of ice time in a 4-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on December 7.
Drouin has had injury struggles for the majority of his career and has only played more than 50 games in a season once over the past four years. The Avalanche giving such a heavy workload to a player with a significant injury history seems to be an indication that both Drouin and Colorado are confident in his health.
However, you can’t argue with the numbers that Drouin has been putting up in the mile-high city. He is just 11 points off of the 28 he scored with the Canadiens last season through 58 games.
This is exactly the type of play that the Avalanche were hoping to get from the Drouin when they signed the former Hab to a one-year “prove it” deal worth just $825,000 last summer. Now, four months into the NHL season, that is looking like one of the best bargain contracts in the entire league.
Drouin will be making his return to Montreal sooner rather than later. The Avalanche will visit the Bell Centre on January 15, when there will most likely be some kind of tribute to celebrate Drouin’s six seasons spent playing for the Canadiens.