The former third-overall pick has had a slow start to the 2024-25 season.
The former third-overall pick has had a slow start to the 2024-25 season.
In 22 games this season, Mason McTavish has 11 points. At a glance, maybe those numbers don't seem so bad. However, you expect much more from a player selected with the third overall pick three years ago.
It's been a tough start to the season for McTavish, who has seen himself move up and down the lineup and dealt with injury. It's a complete 180-turn from his 2023-24 performance, where he was averaging nearly a point per game at this point of the year last season. A lack of consistent linemates hasn't helped him either, as he's played on just about every line now and been unable to produce consistently.
“Mack’s line has not done anything and we were all expecting Mack to take a big jump," head coach Greg Cronin said in late October. "McTavish should be a 30-goal scorer in this league. He can shoot a puck. He's strong as a bull. He gets up and down the ice pretty well. He's not a razzle-dazzle skill guy, but he should be like (Brady) Tkachuk in Ottawa. A power forward that just lives at the other team's net.
"When he gets with other players, I think he tries to be a skill guy. And that doesn't mean he can't use his skill. But I think his food chain, the top of it's got to be: drive the game, get to the front of the net, win puck battles on the cycles.”
The Tkachuk brothers (Brady and Matthew) are two players that Cronin has said on multiple occasions that he wants McTavish to model his game after. An agitating player who can use his size and strength to his advantage while creating havoc in the crease.
But while McTavish may share some of the same physical capabilities as the Tkachuk brothers, their play styles aren't very similar. McTavish generates a lot of his offense off the rush and while some of that does come with driving hard to the net and creating chaos, he isn't playing to his full potential if his main source of offense is standing around the net and looking for deflections, redirections or rebound opportunities.
The heavy shot he possesses that was so highly touted during his years in the OHL hasn't made an appearance very often this season, with both of his goals coming off deflections. McTavish isn't the fastest skater by any means, but his awareness of the time and space he has with the puck has looked a bit off since his return from injury.
It was an upper-body ailment that kept McTavish out of the lineup for six games. He said it occurred during their Nov. 8 matchup against the Minnesota Wild 'and then it just kind of kept getting worse and worse'. He declined to discuss the injury any further than that.
Upon his return from injury, McTavish was inserted into the top line center role with Leo Carlsson out due to an upper-body injury that he had suffered in the Ducks' previous game. Flanked by Trevor Zegras and Alex Killorn, McTavish still struggled to generate much.
It's puzzling to see such a talented player unable to use the skills that made him such a high draft selection in 2021. It calls into question whether he is being properly utilized and being forced into a role that doesn't suit his best skills. The lack of production may be having an impact on his confidence level as well.
“I remember my first full year, I think I went 11 games to start the year without scoring," McTavish said a day after scoring his first goal of the season on Nov. 3 against the Chicago Blackhawks. "It's tough. A lot of thoughts (are) going in your mind when you're not scoring and that's what you want to do to help the team win. It's nice to get that first one and (have) a little sense of relief."
McTavish scored again two games later against the Wild, but it was that same game in which he suffered the undisclosed upper-body injury.
“I thought he was playing well when he got hurt," Cronin said the morning of McTavish's return from injury on Nov. 25. "He was scoring goals, he was getting to the front of the net. I think when Mack plays well, you'll see him bulldogging his way to the netfront. You'll see him win puck battles in the offensive zone and make plays off of those wins. You see him winning faceoffs––it's an issue that we've had this year––and he's such a physically gifted guy in terms of his size and his thickness when he's skating and he's imposing that size into the game. He's going to be a force."
Through it all, Cronin has preached that getting back to basics will help McTavish find his groove again. At one point, he put McTavish on the fourth line to help instill fourth line habits that could be transferred to roles on higher lines if his performance improved. Cronin did something similar with Cutter Gauthier this season and it has helped the rookie round his game out. Whether that applies to McTavish has yet to be seen.
“He’s a 220-pound forward that I think needs to value driving plays with his body," Cronin said. "Getting to the front of the net, being physical (and) winning one-on-one puck battles. I don't really care what line he's on, to be honest with you. To me, he should be like both the Tkachuks––the one in Ottawa and the one in Florida. Just always around the net, winning one-on-one puck battles, being tough to play against.
"It's an irony, those are kind of fourth line habits that move up to the third, second and first lines when you do them repeatedly. I'm not really focused on what line Mack’s on. I'm just more focused on how he's going to demonstrate that identity for 60 minutes.”
Though Carlsson has returned and pushed McTavish lower in the lineup, Trevor Zegras will be out of the lineup for at least the next six weeks as he recovers from meniscus surgery. Behind Carlsson, McTavish must seize hold of the no. 2 center role and start to get things going.