Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (29) skates during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Buffalo Sabres in Buffalo, N.Y., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Adrian Kraus

Nathan MacKinnon's message would probably be pretty simple.

The Colorado Avalanche centre — one of hockey's hardest-working and intense talents — might even let his younger self know it's OK to ease off the throttle ever so slightly at times.

"The outcome is going to take care of itself," he said. "And it takes a while just to let go of it. It's hard. You want to force good things to happen, but it doesn't really work like that."

NHL players have scratched, clawed, pushed and pulled to reach their sport's pinnacle.

The journey was what it was. But what if the world's best could give a few pointers to the players they once were when the road was long and the climb steep?

"You're just naive and you're immature," Vegas Golden Knights centre Jack Eichel said. "It goes fast. I feel like I blinked and this is my 10th year."

Eichel was drafted by the lowly Buffalo Sabres to be the face of that franchise before a very public divorce over how to treat a neck injury. He was eventually shipped to Sin City and underwent the surgery he preferred.

"Not to let the time pass," Eichel added of his message. "It's so easy for you to go about your everyday business and be complacent with where you're at and where the team's at and go, 'Oh, there's always next year.'

"There's sometimes not. Just be where your feet are. Make sure you're enjoying the moment."

Carolina Hurricanes defenceman Jaccob Slavin said he would share that NHL life is still a job that encompasses all the same stresses of daily life.

"It's not all it's cracked up to be," he said. "You go into this thinking that it's gonna satisfy you, thinking that it's gonna give you joy. I love playing hockey and it makes me happy, but it doesn't give me everlasting joy.

"Hockey is going to end. And if your identity is in the game of hockey, when it ends, you're gonna be rocked."

Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl said his message to the peach-fuzzed German drafted No. 3 overall in 2014 would hit on the series of events about to unfold.

"You're that young and something happens and sometimes that seems like the end of the world," he said. "But even right now, I'm still learning things every single year, right? And you're just like, 'OK, now I'm understanding that and I'm almost 30.'

"I think maybe cutting myself a little bit more slack in a way of understanding how it really works and that it truly is a process. Your whole career is just a process."

New York Rangers forward Vincent Trochek said he'd be tempted to provide advice to his younger self about rushing back from injuries or the pressures of the game, but added a lack of awareness probably helped in his NHL quest.

"I don't know if I would have made it if I didn't have that little bit of naivety," he said. "Always thought that I was going to make it to the NHL. I didn't think that there was a chance I wasn't. That is extremely naive. It is very hard to make the NHL. Telling myself that now I'm like, 'I was a third-rounder. It wasn't like I was a shoo-in to make the league.'

"Going into it a little blind and with a little bit of cockiness helped me."

ASKING ABOUT ASKAROV?

The San Jose Sharks made a seven-player deal Monday that included Mackenzie Blackwood getting dealt to the Colorado Avalanche for a package that saw fellow goaltender Alexandar Georgiev go the other way.

One veteran netminder leaving, but another also one arriving, means Sharks fans might have to wait a little longer to see more of their crease future.

Acquired from the Nashville Predators in the off-season, Yaroslav Askarov owns the American Hockey League's top save percentage (.946) and best goals-against average (1.75) to go along with an 8-3-1 record this season.

The 22-year-old is also 1-0-1 in the NHL with San Jose — a stat line that also includes a .927 save percentage and a 1.96 GAA — but he appears rooted in the minors for the time being.

COACHING HOT SEAT?

The axe has already fallen on three NHL coaches some two months into the regular season.

Could the New York Rangers be next?

After trading captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks on Friday, the club beat Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 at home before Sunday's 7-5 loss to the Seattle Kraken.

New York was then booed off the Madison Square Garden ice Monday in the wake of a 2-1 defeat to the last-place Chicago Blackhawks.

Head coach Peter Laviolette guided the Rangers to last season's Eastern Conference final in his first season, but heading into Wednesday the team sat fifth in the Metropolitan Division, outside the playoff picture, and was just 2-8-0 over its last 10 games.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2024.

Joshua Clipperton's weekly NHL notebook is published every Wednesday.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2024