Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon played his 600th NHL regular-season game against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night. The 26-year-old was kept off the scoreboard last night, something that has become a bit of a rarity for him.

It seems inevitable that MacKinnon will go down as one of the greatest Avalanche forwards and could well be heading towards his jersey being raised to the rafters upon retirement. Some of that will be determined by how successful the team is when he is in his prime, but his points total alone is going to be enough if he keeps up the pace we are currently seeing.

The first 600 games have led to a very even look so far, MacKinnon has 600 points from those 600 games, though how they have been put together tells a story of how he has developed as a player.

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Solid First 300 Games Followed by High Scoring Second 300

You can split the first 600 games of MacKinnon’s NHL career into two clear halves. The first half, finding his feet after being drafted first overall in 2013 and scoring 206 points from his first 300 games in the league.

After that, MacKinnon has popped off, setting himself up as being regarded as the player in the NHL on one of the most team-friendly deals. Despite being the player that every opposing player targets and wants to shut down, he has been able to score freely throughout. His most recent 300 games have resulted in 394 points, which is just under 125 from every 100 games played.

At 26, MacKinnon is now in his peak, and it is a fair assumption to make that he can continue this kind of point-scoring pace, certainly for the next 300 games at least. What we can assume is that he will remain with the team, remain as their top center and be the main focus point of the attack, and in particular, the power play.

 

Comparisons to MacKinnon’s Draft Class

We often look through a previous draft and look to find where the value was, if anyone was stolen off the board late and how the top picks have all compared to each other. A look at the 2013 NHL Draft class and you will see that MacKinnon has given the Avalanche full value for their first overall pick so far.