It's no doubt the MacKinnon - Landeskog - Rantanen line of the Colorado Avalanche is the best in the NHL right now. The first month of the regular season has almost passed and these young guys performed awesomely, they scored 55 points in total. Only the top line of the Boston Bruins (Bergeron - Pastrnak - Marchand) came close enough with 44 points.
Colorado Avalanche is on the 2nd place in the Central Division and the 3rd in the league with 16 points after 12 games played (7-3-2), tied by points with the Nashville Predators and the Toronto Maple Leafs who played one game less. Avalanche scored 41 goals for, more than a half of them (24) were scored by the MGM line. A fantastic productivity. These three found their chemistry which helps them score 10 points in a game - we saw this on October 26, when Colorado defeated Ottawa Senators 6-3. That night Rantanen had 4 points, MacKinnon - 3 points and Landeskog - also 3 points.
This line is a young one. Gabriel Landeskog is 25 years old and he's the oldest of three. The Avalanche captain was drafted #2 overall in 2011, debuted the same year, won the Calder Trophy and got the "C" letter in his second season. Last season he had 62 points (25+37) in 78 games, and now Landeskog scores 1.3 points per game - keep it up!
Many people mention Nathan MacKinnon as a possible best hockey player. 23-years-old was drafted #1 overall in 2013 and as well as Landeskog debuted the same year and won the Calder Trophy. Last season he was a nominee for the Hart Trophy and for the Ted Lindsay Award, scored 97 points (39+58) in 74 games, but this October he scored 1.5 points per game, it's a better result than a year ago.
The youngest linemate Mikko Rantanen (22 years old) was drafted #10 overall in 2015 but spent his first year in North America mostly in the AHL. This very talented player improves from season to season, in 2017-18 he had 84 points (29+55) in 81 game, this year he scores 1.75 points per game.
As we can see, Avalanche worked well on the Drafts in the last decade. Now their top prospects developed enough and helped the team to have the best start in the last decade.
All of MGM line players are in the NHL's top-10 by scoring. Mikko Rantanen leads the league with 21 points, also he leads in assists (16). Gabriel Landeskog is the second in the NHL by goals (10), his linemate Nathan MacKinnon has 9 goals scored. And all three players are the League leaders in plus-minus with +14 (Rantanen, Landeskog) and +12 (MacKinnon). Last season this line also performed very well, Gabriel Landeskog was a nominee for the Hart Trophy and the Avalanche made the Playoffs but lost in the first round to the Nashville Predators 2-4. This season the Colorado top line demonstrates improved efficiency, and it seems the team from Denver will have no problem with making the playoffs. The main questions are how Avalanche will look like in case of injury of any of these players and how long in the season they can play on such a high level?
Anyway, Colorado Avalanche was one of the worst teams in the NHL for a very long time, but this season they finally perform really good. Wish them a good luck.
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