Canadiens, Drouin Had Good Reason to Walk Away from Each Other

Nor was it surprising that the crowd booed Drouin at every other opportunity. How else are you going to let him know how you really feel after all? It wasn’t even surprising that Drouin tallied an assist in the contest. Of course he did. If anything, it’s surprising he didn’t score more, because isn’t that how this usually works?

Nevertheless, the most surprising part was Joel Armia scoring the late game-winning goal in an evenly matched game, as the Canadiens edged the heavily favoured Avalanche 4-3 on Jan. 15. So, ultimately, Drouin’s return to town wasn’t quite so triumphant.

Drouin Reunites with MacKinnon

True, Drouin has been scoring ever-so-slightly more with the Avalanche than he generally did with the Canadiens (186 points in 321 games). His 10 goals and 15 assists in 42 games put him on pace for 20 markers and 49 points over an entire season. He never scored more than 18 goals with the Canadiens and hit 50 points just once, both in 2018-19.

However, seeing as Drouin is now playing for an offensive powerhouse, it’s not exactly like he’s exactly or finally living up to his immense potential as a former third-overall pick by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2013. That was obviously the draft year the Avalanche took Nathan MacKinnon first overall, with the two ex-junior teammates’ careers having gone in drastically different directions since their days with the Halifax Mooseheads.

MacKinnon has become a perennial Hart Memorial Trophy candidate, for a time on one of the best contracts in the league that paid him $6.3 million on average (up until last season). In contrast, Drouin continually faced criticism playing in the hockey-mad fishbowl that is Montreal, in spite of the fact he largely delivered production in line with his annual $5.5 million cap hit, which ex-general manager Marc Bergevin awarded him upon acquiring him.

Having just signed a sweetheart one-year, $825,000 deal with the Avalanche, Drouin is obviously hoping to get his career back on track. He’s undeniably overperforming this time around taking his salary into account, giving the Avs much more than their money’s worth, on what one might call a redemption tour, MacKinnon having put in a good word with the team on his behalf ahead of free agency last summer (from ‘How Nathan MacKinnon helped Colorado Avalanche sign Jonathan Drouin in free agency,’ Denver Gazette, July 12, 2023).

Revisiting Drouin for Sergachev

It’s kind of hitting the nail on the head, though. Drouin is back playing with the linemate with whom he probably enjoyed the most success, out of the spotlight for all intents and purposes. By all appearances, he was never one for all the attention in Montreal, especially as one of the few native French speakers (when dealing with the media). So, he seems more in his element. However, if this is how Drouin performs under ideal circumstances, in what is supposed to be his prime as he gets set to turn 29 years of age, it’s no big loss for the Canadiens, at least not at this juncture.

You probably can’t say that with regard to the initial trade with the Lightning, where defensive-prospect Mikhail Sergachev went the other way. As has been stated time and again, the Canadiens gave up a top-end defenseman for the future they needed for a winger they didn’t.

The Canadiens then tried to fit Drouin in as a centre to become the No. 1 pivot for which they’d been looking for decades, when it was fairly clear that wasn’t going to work. The way they tried to repurpose Drouin on the fly made it seem as if Drouin had more in common with a piece of used furniture than an at-the-time upstart 22-year-old hockey player. Needless to say, that’s not how you should treat a young player on the upswing, let alone the player you’re presumably hoping becomes the face of the franchise.

In reality, all Bergevin and company accomplished was they hyped Drouin up even more to Habs fans, to levels he was never realistically going to attain. They tried to make him the “guy,” when it quickly became apparent he wasn’t suited to play either the position in question or that role, resulting in much of the market souring on him, through little fault of his own.

Canadiens and Drouin Mutually Part Ways

All that to say, Drouin’s production right now is similar to what he was giving the Canadiens on a quasi-regular basis (when, all due respect to him, he was healthy enough to play, which wasn’t all that often). He may turn it up a notch or two overall, considering he’s scored nine points in the last eight games since he (re)joined MacKinnon on the top line at the end of the last calendar year, it admittedly not really having worked out earlier in the season. It can go either way.

So, Canadiens fans have no reason to stay sour on Drouin, as it was never going to work out as hoped, even had he stayed. On the off chance he develops into the star they were promised from here on out, you have to believe it will only be because of MacKinnon (an actual centre), and it’s not like the Canadiens have a MacKinnon at the ready. If they did, they would never have needed Drouin in the first place. As alluded to earlier, they never really did.

Drouin was more so a luxury, a native son who could speak the language and presumably put up a decent amount of points. He was a nice-to-have… until he wasn’t. It’s nice the fans in attendance showed him support during the ovation they gave him, but ultimately that’s all it was, support. It can’t really be recognition for all he accomplished with the Canadiens, because there wasn’t much. That’s not on him though, but the Habs as a whole, including management, which failed not just the fans, but him too. So, he probably didn’t merit getting booed either, although that’s kind of the go-to response for Bell Centre fans for all ex-Habs.

Truth be told, Drouin probably deserved more support and less boos during his Canadiens tenure. There was a happy medium that he missed out on as a Hab. Hopefully he finds it elsewhere. He deserves that too.