I wanted to title this post ‘Drouin Deserves A Second Chance…’ but that would be rather disingenuous now, wouldn’t it? And it depends on the person that you are talking to as to whether he has had too many chances, or never really had a chance.
Drouin came into the organization with an incredible amount of pressure on his shoulders. He was the third overall pick in 2013, right up there with Nathan Mackinnon, Aleksander Barkov, Seth Jones and Elias Lindholm.
Not only that, but Drouin was traded to Montreal for Mikhail Sergachev. Sergachev was Montreal’s 9th overall pick in the 2016 draft and was considered the Canadiens’ blue chip prospect. In fact, then General Manager Marc Bergevin had made a statement that he would not trade away Sergachev.
Not only that, but Drouin was born in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, which is about an hour out of Montreal. The Canadiens have always been proud of their hometown boys, but that has gone through a bit of a drought. So any player from Quebec will have the world put on their shoulders.
Not exactly the most fair situation to be thrust into as a young player.
Is there any question why Drouin needed a break for mental health reasons?