Jets’ Shaw happy to attend superstar summer school with Nathan, Sid, Brad…

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This article was published 12/11/2019 (2154 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It may not seem like it on the surface but Logan Shaw and Nathan MacKinnon have a lot in common.

Shaw, a 27-year-old journeyman pro, and MacKinnon, a 24-year-old NHL megastar, have been workout buddies for going on 10 years near their off-season homes in Halifax.

The pace and intensity of the on-ice sessions is anything but relaxing.

“I’m fortunate, I get to spend the summer with him,” Shaw said Tuesday morning as his Winnipeg Jets prepped for an evening matchup with MacKinnon’s high-flying Colorado Avalanche.

“We have a good skates there. The way that he competes in July and August is the way he competes in April and May. It’s pretty impressive to see a guy like that work that hard in summer. That why it carries over, and at the start of the season he’s on fire.”

MacKinnon entered Tuesday’s action with nine goals and 22 points in 17 games to lead the Avs, who have been beset by injuries to several top players, including Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog, his regular linemates.

Shaw believes the on-ice sessions at the BMO Centre in Bedford, N.S., which also include NHLers such as Sidney Crosby and Brad Marchand, have helped him build a career.

Recently, Shaw regained a toehold in the NHL when the Jets recalled him from the AHL’s Manitoba Moose.

“If anything, it makes all of us better players on the ice,” said Shaw, who was pointless in four games with the Jets prior to Tuesday’s game. “(He) and Crosby, the work ethic they bring in the summer, I think is a big reason I am where I am right now. I started skating with those guys when I was 18 or 19.

“Summer’s not easy for me to keep up with those guys. The one-on-one battles we doing in July are kinda unlike most places.”

The arrangement also works well for the superstars.

“We treat it like a game a little bit,” said MacKinnon. “We have a competition at the end of each skate, two-on-two or three-on-three, whatever it may be. Yeah, it’s intense, it’s a really good workout and we have a lot of fun.”

For MacKinnon, evolving into an upper echelon player — he went from 53 points in 2016-17 to 97 in 2017-18 — came after he re-dedicated himself to getting better.

“I think I’ve gotten more serious, more dialed in in the summer,” said MacKinnon. “With maturity, (and) as you get older, you realize what you actually have to do to be successful in this league. Your whole life it kinda comes easy and in the NHL, it’s really hard to be a good player. I had to get more serious and that started in the summer.”

MacKinnon’s powerful skating is part of his signature, but he’s worked hard to hone his craft. He was enrolled in early morning power skating classes three or four times per week from the age of four until he was 14. More recently, trainer Andy O’Brien helped him transform his straight-line speed into the explosive, more agile form he now shows on the ice.

That package of speed and skill has evoked comparisons to Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, widely regarded as the league’s best player.

MacKinnon discourages that kind of talk.

“I have respect for all the really good players in the league,” said MacKinnon. “(McDavid’s) been a lot more successful than I have so far, I think he just hit 400 points for his career. I have a (few) more than that but I’ve been in the league a lot longer. He’s such an amazing player, and with (David) Pastrnak and Sid and (Leon) Draisaitl, Rantanen — all these guys — there are so many amazing players in this league.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14