Avalanches Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin seek to recapture Halifax magic

August 31, 2024

The Halifax Mooseheads’ bus was alive with triumph and youthful energy. Players called excitedly to each other in a mix of French and English, and the upbeat tune of “The Night Paddy Murphy Died” played for all to hear. Play-by-play announcer John Moore felt the bus rock as he climbed aboard outside the Colisée Pepsi in Quebec City.

Somewhere in the mass of hockey players, Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin sat arm in arm. It was April 2012, and the two teenagers had just propelled the Mooseheads to a 3-0 series comeback in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoff quarterfinals. Fifteen minutes into overtime of Game 7 against coach Patrick Roy and the favored Quebec Remparts, Drouin had backhanded a MacKinnon rebound into the net. The goal sent the Mooseheads into a celebratory frenzy that carried into the team bus.

Years later, Moore can still picture MacKinnon and Drouin sitting together. They were two players brimming with potential. Their faces radiated joy and excitement.

“They both had very bright futures in front of them,” Moore says. “Yet this was for them, I think, the biggest moment ever in their careers to that (point).”

“That was the start of everything,” Drouin adds.

Halifax lost its next series, but the next year, MacKinnon and Drouin led the Mooseheads to a league championship and the Memorial Cup title. By 2014, both were in the NHL, each selected in the top three of the 2013 draft. MacKinnon, the No. 1 pick by Colorado, has established himself as one of the league’s best players and hoisted the Stanley Cup in 2022. Drouin played in a Cup Final as a rookie with Tampa Bay and has carved out a 485-game career, mostly with Montreal. In his first five years in the NHL, he put together three 45-plus point seasons.

But since then, Drouin’s arc has had more stops and starts than MacKinnon’s. This summer, when he hit free agency, offered an opportunity for change. He signed for just above the league minimum with the Avalanche, who open their season on Wednesday in Los Angeles.

“I’m not 22 anymore. I’m 28,” he says. “Time goes by fast, and you don’t want to waste those chances.”

So, more than a decade after forming a historic junior hockey duo in Halifax, MacKinnon and Drouin are back together, hopeful that their chemistry can transcend time apart and a change in level. Drouin has his fresh start after an at-times difficult tenure in Montreal, and MacKinnon has a chance to play with a close friend — one whose talent he still firmly believes in.

So much had to go right for MacKinnon and Drouin to play with each other in the first place. It took multiple trades, a change of career plans and shrewd work by Halifax general manager Cam Russell.

The Mooseheads had endured three dismal seasons entering the 2011 QMJHL Draft, and they saw MacKinnon, a hometown phenom, as their potential savior. To guarantee that would happen, Russell needed to acquire the No. 1 selection in the draft, which belonged to the Baie-Comeau Drakkar. Halifax packaged the No. 4 pick in a deal with Rouyn-Noranda to move up to No. 2, and Russell hoped that pick could be the centerpiece of a deal with Baie-Comeau.

The Drakkar weren’t interested. They rejected Russell’s trade proposals and took MacKinnon, even after the prospect’s family told them he wouldn’t report to Baie-Comeau, which is about 250 miles north of Quebec City. With the No. 2 pick, the Mooseheads took Drouin.

In the month after the draft, MacKinnon stood firm in his stance that he wasn’t going to Baie-Comeau. He even spent time skating with the Omaha Lancers, who had selected him in the USHL draft. Eventually, the Drakkar saw no choice but to trade him.

Though the Mooseheads offered Baie-Comeau the No. 2 pick ahead of the draft, Russell didn’t want to part with Drouin now that he had selected him. He saw a window to have both young stars on his roster. So when Baie-Comeau asked for Drouin, Russell resisted.

“I remember how frustrated (Russell) was with the inability to get a deal done,” Moore says. “He worked tirelessly at it.”

Russell eventually acquired MacKinnon, sending Baie-Comeau a haul: three first-round picks, plus the Mooseheads’ leading scorer and another player. Halifax’s future, built around MacKinnon and Drouin, appeared set.

But one more holdup emerged. When Mooseheads training camp opened, Drouin wasn’t there.

“I still wanted to go the college route,” says Drouin, who toured Boston University, Boston College and Northeastern, and loved the feel of being on campus.

He wanted to stay with his AAA team, which would allow him to keep NCAA eligibility. That threw a wrench in Halifax’s vision.

“We desperately wanted him and Nate playing together from the start,” Russell says.

So Russell and coach Dominique Ducharme flew to Montreal and had lunch with Drouin and his agent, Allan Walsh. They made clear how much they wanted the wing and discussed the team’s young core, with whom they felt he could grow. And though at that point Drouin still didn’t want to leave AAA, the general manager and coach successfully planted seeds in his head.

Over the coming weeks, Drouin dominated his AAA opponents, scoring 22 goals and 53 points in only 22 games. He started to feel as if he was wasting his time.

“I wasn’t getting better,” he says.

In his free time, Drouin watched Mooseheads highlights. Finally, in mid-December, the skilled forward with elite vision felt ready to make the leap to junior. He traveled to Halifax, put on a red and green Mooseheads jersey, laced up his skates and took the ice with MacKinnon.

The results that followed were magical.

When other events made the ice at the Metro Centre unavailable, Mooseheads players changed at the building’s locker room, then made the short drive to the Halifax Forum for practice. On one of those days in April 2013, Moore decided to hop into MacKinnon’s black Ford Escape. Drouin took the backseat.

The two players wore full gear as Moore filmed an interview for his website. They joked about MacKinnon’s taste in music (“dark rap,” the center said), as well as his abilities as a driver and parking struggles. Drouin was probably best equipped to assess his friend’s ability in a car. MacKinnon not only drove him to practice, but also to high school.

“We come (to school) early and leave late,” MacKinnon jokes in the video. “That’s our philosophy for academics, and it’s really paying off on our report cards.”

(Years later, Drouin says he and MacKinnon “didn’t really enjoy school that much” but made sure they had good enough grades to keep their parents happy. “Even at school we were talking about hockey and focusing on hockey and talking about highlights from the NHL,” Drouin says.)

MacKinnon and Drouin became fast friends when the latter arrived in December 2011, and Moore’s video offers a glimpse into both their comfort around and support for each other. MacKinnon even advocates for Drouin to win league MVP.

“You get these star quality players together and sometimes there’s some jealousy and animosity,” Russell says. “But they became best friends.”

“They were like Velcro,” adds then-Halifax assistant Jim Midgley, who is now the team’s head coach.

MacKinnon and Drouin had crossed paths before joining the Mooseheads. When the two were 8 or 9 years old, MacKinnon came to Montreal for a couple tournaments and played with Drouin. They also faced off at the 2011 Canada Games in Halifax.

The duo didn’t always play on the same line during Drouins’ first few months with the Mooseheads, but that changed during playoffs. The chemistry, MacKinnon remembers, was instant. In 17 games, MacKinnon and Drouin had 28 and 26 points, respectively, finishing top-two on the team.

Drouin is a natural playmaker who sees the ice well, which fit perfectly with MacKinnon’s blazing speed. He’d tell his center not to hesitate skating up ice.

“I’m going to find you,” Drouin would say.

“I really enjoy playing with guys who like to do give-and-gos and move the puck around,” MacKinnon says. He’s not really going to hang onto the puck and keep it. I like to have the puck on my stick a lot, and he definitely gets it to me.”

Nathan MacKinnon, right, and Jonathan Drouin have won together before. (Courtesy of Halifax Mooseheads)

The 2012 comeback against Quebec City was just a taste of what was to come. In 2012-13, MacKinnon and Drouin’s first full season together, the two dominated the QMJHL. MacKinnon had 75 points in 44 games, and Drouin’s numbers were even more gaudy. He scored 41 goals and 105 points in 49 games, winning MVP.

Mooseheads teammate Stefan Fournier, a team captain, calls Drouin “probably one of the most dynamic junior hockey players I had ever watched.” Pairing him with MacKinnon was a cheat code. They were at a different level from almost everyone in the league, including their own teammates.

“I got screamed at a lot for missing passes,” Fournier says. “They were making plays that I couldn’t exactly read and pick up on. It had its challenges, but everything came together very well.”

Historically well. Over the course of the 2012-13 campaign, Halifax — which also featured future NHLers MacKenzie Weegar, Martin Frk and Zach Fucale — won 58 of their 68 games, tying what at the time was a QMJHL record for victories in a season. (The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies broke it with 59 wins in 2018-19.)

In the season opener, Cape Breton forward Cole Murphy, one of MacKinnon’s childhood friends, had the unenviable task of going against the Mooseheads’ top line. He already knew what MacKinnon could do — he’d seen it his whole life — but now the center was with someone at his level. Playing against them wasn’t just a challenge. It was downright intimidating.

Within a period against the Eagles, Drouin had scored, and MacKinnon potted a game-winner in overtime. Both had plus-2 ratings.

“It’s almost like you know they’re going to score,” Murphy says. “You just don’t want them to score five or six.”

“Their ability to communicate with each other almost became psychic on the ice,” adds Walsh, Drouin’s agent. “It was incredible to go to those games in Halifax because you were literally on the edge of your seat.”

The year before MacKinnon and Drouin arrived, Halifax averaged 5,215 fans at home games, per Ice Hockey Attendance Stats. In 2012-13, that number was up to 8,992. People didn’t want to miss the show — and that included talent evaluators. During intermissions, Moore would leave his broadcast booth and talk to NHL scouts. He remembers them shaking their heads at what they were watching Drouin and MacKinnon accomplish.

To Murphy, whose Eagles played the Mooseheads eight times that season, the pair’s chemistry felt similar to the Hall of Fame-enshrined Sedin brothers. One would throw the puck to a spot on the ice, and the other would magically be there. The league had no answers.

“I don’t think there’s ever been two players with that kind of chemistry, especially that young,” Murphy says.

The Mooseheads tore through the QMJHL playoffs, going 16-1. They then won the Memorial Cup, buoyed by a MacKinnon hat trick in the championship game. Fittingly, Halifax’s two stars split postseason honors: Drouin won the QMJHL playoff MVP, and MacKinnon was the Memorial Cup MVP.

Their final game together as junior players was the Memorial Cup win. And after MacKinnon held the coveted trophy, the first person he passed it to was Drouin, wide grins on both their faces.

Shortly after signing Drouin, Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland referred to MacKinnon as an honorary member of the scouting department. Colorado’s front office picked his brain about the winger and trusted his praise.

Unsurprisingly, MacKinnon was also in touch with Drouin frequently as decision time neared.

“He sent me a couple texts, crossing his fingers, hoping I was coming,” Drouin says. “I made up my mind pretty close to free agency that I wanted to come here.”

Health issues — both physical and mental — limited Drouin to 163 games over the past four years. He says he felt better his last two seasons with the Canadiens but still dealt with injuries.

“Montreal is a heavy, heavy place for a French Canadian,” MacKinnon says. “I think he loved it there but it was time for a change, and I think it’s a great spot here.”

When evaluating his free agency options this summer, hockey fit trumped all other priorities for Drouin. He and MacKinnon won’t be as dominant as they were in Halifax — the competition is a tad stiffer in the NHL, after all — but they are poised to start the season on the same line once again. MacKinnon is excited, and the two have regularly stayed on the ice late doing extra drills together.

“Reuniting those two could be something that really helps Jonathan,” says Russell, their old general manager. “I think there’s still a lot of great hockey left in him. I’m just a big fan. I believe in the kid.”

Mikko Rantanen, their right wing, sees flashes of their chemistry, even after their time apart. He notices it most off the ice, where Drouin and MacKinnon have picked up where they left off in Halifax. They walk their dogs together and, just as they were with the Mooseheads, are carpool buddies.

“(We played together at) 8 years old, 16 and now 28,” Drouin says. “Hopefully we stay together — we don’t leave for another 10.”

(Top photo of Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin: Courtesy of Halifax Mooseheads)

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