(Arlington, Virginia) Last winter, Mavrik Bourque had finally won his bet, that of representing Canada at the World Junior Championship. A few days later, outbreaks of COVID-19 led to the cancellation of the tournament.
Posted at 8:00 a.m.
When summer came, a new invitation was issued to him with a view to resuming the tournament in August. This time, he decided to decline the offer.
Did he feel a little pinch when he saw the Canadian team win the gold medal? “No, not really,” he replies, as frankly as possible.
Crossed at the NHL Rookie Showcase earlier this week, Bourque looked decidedly fired up. If he decided to skip the World Juniors, it was to give himself the chance to continue his summer training, with his eyes riveted on his current objective: to break through the formation of the Dallas Stars, the team that drafted in the first round (30e in total) in 2020.
“It was for my good, he pleads in an interview. I wanted to see the long term and have a good first professional season, no matter where I’m going to be. »
” For [s]on bien”, it meant above all enjoying a sufficient break between the end of the last season and the start of the next. With the Shawinigan Cataractes, Bourque won the President’s Cup – and, on an individual basis, the Guy-Lafleur Trophy, awarded to the most valuable player in the playoffs. With the Cats, he then reached the semifinals of the Memorial Cup, so he was still on the ice at the end of June.
Besides, his 2021-2022 campaign was reduced to just 31 games due to various injuries, which are now fully healed, he assures. “Everything is settled, I am ready. For the past few weeks, he has been training at Laval University, in Quebec, in the company of established players such as Thomas Chabot and David Savard.
” No matter where [il va] be” rather refers to a question: will it be in Dallas, in the NHL, or in the suburbs of Austin, in the American League? Nothing is decided, and both options seem possible.
“Forcing their hand”
In an organization whose stars like Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn are aging and have injury-laden histories, Bourque is seen as one of the top offensive prospects. It is therefore not utopian to think that he will be able to land a job in the NHL this fall. The club’s management are yet to update the small forward on their short-term plans for him.
Realistic, he knows well that a detour via the American League is more likely. He also knows, especially from having discussed it with Jakob Pelletier, who has been there in the Calgary Flames system, that an entire year in the minors is not the end of the world.
He had also had a taste of this caliber of play, at the end of the 2020-2021 season, when he had played six games with the Texas Stars, collecting five points.
However, “the goal is to play at the top”, he maintains. And to conclude: “I want to force their hand. »
When you know the ardor that Mavrik Bourque deploys on the ice, you can imagine that he does not launch this statement lightly.