Colorado Avalanche Players Explore Nathan MacKinnon’s License Plate Options

Colorado Avalanche players guess what Nathan MacKinnon’s personalized license plate should be.

Colorado Avalanche superstar Nathan MacKinnon is a serious man. He’s just very competitive — even when compared to other professional athletes. He’s also not one to cut it up for the social media crew the Avalanche employ.

You just don’t see MacKinnon cutting it up that often. So, when you do, it’s a treat to see the lighter side of MacK. We do see it in the summer when he makes his Tim Horton’s commercials with Sidney Crosby. Recently, though, we got to see a more recent example.

At the beginning of the season, the Avs’ social media team gets the players to answer questions as part of Media Day. Media Day comes up before any of the competitive play that puts players like MacKinnon into game mode — ie., seriousness. We end up seeing a relaxed Nate.

So, as part of their Media Day video roundup, the social team asked players to focus on MacKinnon. The question was what would be on his personalized license plate if he had one — Nate, of course, does not. He’s too serious-minded for that.

His teammates had fun coming up with key qualities of MacKinnon that could be expressed on a license plate. One was the consensus pick, though.

In fact, a couple seasons ago MacKinnon mentioned he doesn’t really love the nickname “MacK.” He prefers Nate. However, his teammates also revealed a different nickname that he really likes — Nate Dogg, or The Dogg. As the tweet above indicates, it’s spelled with two Gs.

The reason for this nickname is that MacKinnon is renowned for being a fan of rap music. Nate Dogg is a rap name. It’s not just rap-sounding (my initial assumption) — there was actually a rapper named Nate Dogg. (Yes, he was related to Snoop Dogg.)

I’m not sure if Nathan MacKinnon is a fan of Nate Dogg’s music specifically. However, his first name being Nate does make the nickname convenient.

That said, “The Dogg” as a license plate motto might describe MacK’s — sorry, Nate’s — musical preferences. However, it really doesn’t describe who he is individually.

I think Ian Cole got closer to a good motto — Zoom Zoom. That’s certainly Nate’s speed level on the ice. Zoom Superstar, Superstar 29, Zoom 29… Anything that incorporate speed, the #29, and/or his superstar status.

What do you think? If you were in charge of making a personalized license plate for our Colorado Avalanche superstar, what would it say?