Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon, Casey Mittelstadt using Hall of Famer lessons to their advantage

If Nathan MacKinnon comes to you and asks if you want to get a little extra work in before practice, the answer is never going to be no, right?

Certainly not if you're Casey Mittelstadt.

"If Nate wants to do something, I'm going to do it with him," Mittelstadt told The Denver Gazette with a smile.

And most days, Nate wants to get some extra work in. That's why he's one of the best in the world. Certainly not a bad guy for Mittelstadt to be spending a lot of time with.

 
Colorado's top two centers have been inseparable before and after practices this season. When the Avalanche coaching staff decides to make a practice optional, which they tend to do once the season really gets going, it's usually not optional for those two.

If you've attended any Avalanche practices this season, you've seen them working together on one half of the rink while the rest of the team skates on the other side. Occasionally a few other guys join them for their drills, but most days, it's just MacKinnon and Mittelstadt.

The drills they practice aren't done at a super high speed. In fact, a lot of the time it looks like they might be doing them at about 70%. It's a lot of catching pucks along the boards and making a quick move or pass to the middle, and it's a lot of repetition. They could be working on the same drill for 30 minutes on days a lot of guys are staying off the ice.

MacKinnon always looks like the guy directing traffic and making up drills on the spot, but it turns out that's not the case at all.

"We both work with Adam Oates, and those are his drills that we do," MacKinnon told The Denver Gazette. "They're not our drills, but they work really well. They translate really well."

The two centers have combined for 52 points in the first 19 Avalanche games, so it's safe to say they're translating.

Oates is one of the best playmakers to ever play in the NHL, and oozed hockey IQ. He retired with 1,079 assists, the eighth-most of any player in NHL history.

After working behind a few NHL benches to varying degrees of success, the Hall of Famer pivoted, becoming a skills coach and helping individual players like MacKinnon and Mittelstadt. You might recognize some of the other guys he's worked with - Nikita Kucherov, Connor McDavid, Steven Stamkos, and Jack Eichel, just to name a few.

Not a bad group, right?

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Mittelstadt, who the Avalanche acquired from Buffalo at the trade deadline in March, was the eighth overall pick in the 2017 draft. After dominating the Minnesota high-school scene for a few years, he turned pro after just one season at the University of Minnesota. For a while, it looked like he might not live up to the hype of being a top 10 draft pick, but he finally broke out in his fifth full NHL season.

He credits a lot of his success these days to Oates, who he's been working with for five years.

"I think I owe (Oates) a lot for my career," Mittelstadt said. "Especially when I started working with him, it was kind of in a bad spot. I owe him a ton. He's helped me exponentially."

Oates and Mittelstadt are almost a perfect pair because their games are very similar. While Oates is one of the best passers to ever play the game, he was never the fastest skater. He was simply smarter than everyone else on the ice. Mittelstadt's style of play isn't all that different than Oates, and he seems to have found a home in Colorado.

It helps when the big dog in town immediately takes a liking to you.

It was clear MacKinnon was a fan of Mittelstadt as soon as he got to town. What's not to like? Colorado had finally found an extremely talented center to put in the lineup behind MacKinnon that could help take some of the pressure off their top center.

After the Avalanche took down the Winnipeg Jets in the first round of the playoffs last season, the superstar couldn't say enough good things about his new teammate.

"Watching (Mittelstadt), how hard he competes out there, I think a lot of people didn't expect that out of him," MacKinnon said. "He's an awesome guy, works really hard."

That mutual respect has now turned into a fantastic working relationship at practice and in the games. While the drills they're executing in practice aren't being done at a super high speed, it's about repetition and getting comfortable doing things you might have to do when it comes to playing a game.

"It's all about getting better every day," MacKinnon said. "It's all stuff that we do every night. We'll catch a ton of rims or catch pucks certain ways and go to our back, whatever it is. A lot of very, very small details is what really matters. I definitely think it really helps playmaking, just seeing the ice better, being comfortable catching rims and looking in the slot, and just being comfortable everywhere."

Because MacKinnon and Mittelstadt are the only two players on the Avalanche who work with Oates, they're typically off doing their own thing at optional skates. When you see the two of them taking up one-third of the ice by themselves, it almost looks like an exclusive club that some folks just can't get into. The work they're doing is paying off, even if they aren't flying through the drills at game speed.

"I think it helps a lot to slow it down and really feel yourself through it," Mittelstadt said. "I think that's a lot of what (Oates) does. You catch five rims a game, the puck is on the wall half the game, so working on things like that are things that sometimes you take for granted and he really focuses in on."

Even the most talented players in the world are always looking for a little extra help reaching that next level. Mittelstadt and MacKinnon are proof of that.

"I think (Oates) definitely saved my career, to some degree," Mittelstadt said.