Colorado Avalanche Forward Nathan MacKinnon Wins Calder Trophy Award
By Andrew Dill
Jun 30, 2013; Newark, NJ, USA; Nathan MacKinnon is congratulated by Colorado Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy after being introduced as the number one overall pick to the Colorado Avalanche during the 2013 NHL Draft at the Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports
As if it wasn’t a surprise after having such a remarkable rookie campaign, Colorado Avalanche rookie Nathan MacKinnon was named the NHL’s top rookie Tuesday night as he will bring home the Calder Trophy. MacKinnon would beat out other rookies such as Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat who are teammates for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Nathan received 130 of the 137 first-place votes.
MacKinnon isn’t the only recent Avalanche player to win the award. Gabriel Landeskog would collect the Calder in 2012 as he too had a wonderful season. MacKinnon is looking forward to his sophomore season as he will be training with the best this offseason in Sidney Crosby.
The 18-year-old Nathan MacKinnon went on to score 24 goals this season for the Colorado Avalanche, notching 63 points while playing in all 82 games; he was only one of two Avs to do so. What’s more impressive about his rookie season is that he set an NHL record with the longest point streak as an 18-year-old (13 games), beating out ‘The Great’ Wayne Gretzky (12 games).
MacKinnon was also a force in the first-round matchup with the Minnesota Wild in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He went on to collect 10 points in seven games.
Congratulations to Nathan on a wonderful rookie campaign and can’t wait to see what he has in store for us next year and in the future.