The Colorado Avalanche signed Jonathan Drouin in the offseason and it has paid off well for all parties involved.
The Colorado Avalanche signed Jonathan Drouin in the offseason and it has paid off well for all parties involved.
With a goal in the 7-4 loss to the Dallas Stars on Sunday night, Avalanche forward Jonathan Drouin earned his 53rd point of the season — which tied his career-high that he accomplished twice.
The 29-year-old achieved that mark in the 2016-17 season as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning and again in the 2018-19 campaign when he was with the Montreal Canadiens. He suffered some setbacks in his last few years with the Habs which cost him some playing time and his highest points season was just 29 before becoming a free agent and signing with the Avs.
"It's cool. Honestly I was struggling the past couple years so to tie my career high is fun. But yeah, there's more work to do, more than my career high, playoffs are coming around so that's where you got to play and produce," Drouin said after practice on Monday.
Head coach Jared Bednar has acknowledged Drouin's improvement all season long. He said he appreciates watching his players get rewarded for their hard work and his top-six forward has earned his success. Drouin has enjoyed the journey with his new team and the coach's philosophy for his players is "happy hockey players are productive hockey players."
"I'm really proud of him in the way he's played, the way he's handled the season and he's a great teammate. And whenever you can sort of see — creating offense is an important part of his game. So when you can kind of see the consistency and see all the work that he's putting in sort of come together — and you know, he's having a really good stretch right now and we want it to continue and there's no reason why it can't," Bednar said. "He's playing with the right habits. He's playing with great purpose on both sides of the puck ... He really likes it here. We're glad we have him and hopefully it can continue down the stretch and in the playoffs."
With only four games left to play, the chances the Ste-Agathe, Quebec native sets a new career high for himself are very good. He has only had one point-less game in the last five, and two multi-point games. He is two goals short of tying his career high and one assist short of matching that record, as well. His next opportunity to achieve these goals is Tuesday night against the Minnesota Wild.