NHL Mock Draft 2013: Colorado Avalanche select Nathan MacKinnon with No. 1 pick

It's that time of year, that's right. It's time for the SB Nation hockey writers to get together and take turns stabbing wildly in the dark trying to guess who the teams will pick at the Draft. It's time for the SBN Mock Draft.

This season the Colorado Avalanche struggled to get even a couple of wins together. The only upside to this is that the Colorado Avalanche went into the Draft Lottery knowing they would get to pick at least in the Top Three. Surprisingly, the Avalanche won the Draft Lottery. As such, barring any trades, they'll get to pick first on June 30^th in New Jersey.

The MHH gang got together and had some heated discussion about which guy to take. It came down to either Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin. MacKinnon won the most votes, and as such on behalf of the Colorado Avalanche, Mile High Hockey takes first overall from the QMJHL's Halifax Mooseheads Nathan Mackinnon.

This past season MacKinnon had 75 points in 44 regular season games - including 5 goals in one game - and 33 points in 17 playoff games. He has spiffy moves on the ice. The one draw often said about him is that he is weak on faceoffs, knowing this he worked hard and drastically improved his faceoffs this season. Scouts say he has great hands and a great shot, but he feels his best skill is his skating and his speed. During the Combine he said the toughest question he heard was what he would do without it, because he believes that "it's my whole game. It's what I do. It's my strength."

Off ice, he is personable and quick to smile. He is responsible - trying to get his teammates to school on time. He is unassuming, and quick to draw attention away from himself and heaps praise both onto his teammates and his opponents. All of these are character traits that the Colorado Avalanche seem to love.

The new Colorado Avalanche head coach has seen a lot of MacKinnon, and Nathan wants in on being coached by Roy saying "he'd be a great person to develop under. He's a winner. He has a very competitive nature and I think I have that too, so it'd go really well. Like I said, he wants to win. He'll do anything to win. I'd love to play for him. It'd be great".

With all of this, and the fake first overall pick in the Mock Draft, the Colorado Avalanche have Nathan MacKinnon down as their pick in SBN's 2013 Mock Draft.

Find more information on MacKinnon here and here.

For full SBN Mock Draft coverage, visit the Mock Draft page.