Nathan MacKinnon on track to play in 1,000+ career games
I’ve always found it interesting to see what the Avalanche’s record is with and without certain players. I’ve talked about it when Valeri Nichushkin was ruled out for a while. So, why not touch on the same thing with Nathan MacKinnon?
The Avalanche have a record of 461-306-81 when MacKinnon is on the ice. Countering that, their record without him is 43-25-5. In all, that’s not even a full season’s worth of games missed, which is amazing to see.
Playing in the NHL is tough. Playing all 82 games in a season is definitely something that has to be commended. MacKinnon has done it four times in his career.
#29 has played in 848 games so far in his career. If he plays in every game here on out for the rest of this season, he’ll finish the year with 873 games played, which puts him at 127 games remaining.
If we take every game up until the end of MacKinnon’s current contract (not counting the rest of this season), he’ll have played 492 more games, putting him well-ahead of the 1,000 games goal. MacKinnon will turn 35 during his final year on his current deal. Will that mark the end of his amazing career? The only thing we can do is cherish what we have in him, and cross that bridge when we get there in 2030-31.