Nathan MacK­in­non is a deserv­ing recip­i­ent of the 2020 Lady Byng Memo­r­i­al Tro­phy. The Avalanche’s fiery super­star, how­ev­er, is cer­tain­ly not a quin­tes­sen­tial choice.

Win­ning the award speaks to his mat­u­ra­tion since he began his NHL career with the Avs at age 18 in 2014.

“I nev­er thought I would win this one,” MacK­in­non, 25, said of the Lady Byng after being award­ed it Fri­day. “But it’s cool and I’m very honored.”

Giv­en to the NHL play­er “adjudged to have exhib­it­ed the best type of sports­man­ship and gen­tle­man­ly con­duct com­bined with a high stan­dard of play­ing abil­i­ty” dur­ing the reg­u­lar sea­son, the Lady Byng and MacK­in­non don’t exact­ly see eye to eye.

MacK­in­non, who is also up for the Hart Tro­phy (media) and Ted Lind­say Award (play­ers) as NHL MVP, def­i­nite­ly has a high stan­dard of play­ing abil­i­ty. But he’s no Joe Sakic or Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado’s two oth­er Lady Byng win­ners, and he had nev­er before been one to con­sis­tent­ly stay away from chip­pi­ness before the 2019–20 sea­son began.

MacK­in­non, who fin­ished fifth in NHL reg­u­lar-sea­son scor­ing with 93 points, took just 12 penal­ty min­utes in 69 games. He became the first play­er in Avalanche his­to­ry to pro­duce 90 points while sit­ting in the penal­ty box for 12 min­utes or less, and just the third NHL play­er in the last 20 years with those numbers.

The Lady Byng is vot­ed on by the Pro­fes­sion­al Hock­ey Writ­ers Asso­ci­a­tion at the end of the reg­u­lar sea­son. If the vot­ing was con­duct­ed dur­ing or after the play­offs, MacK­in­non wouldn’t have been considered.

MacK­in­non matched his career-low 12 penal­ty min­utes with a dozen in just 15 play­off games when the stakes were much high­er. He served an unsports­man­like con­duct minor in round-robin play against the Vegas Gold­en Knights, and inter­fer­ence and hook­ing minors in Game 3 of a first-round series against the Ari­zona Coyotes.

In Game 4 against Ari­zona, MacK­in­non and Chris­t­ian Fis­ch­er served rough­ing minors after the for­mer threw the lat­ter around like a rag doll in what near­ly became a full-fledged fight.

A self-pro­claimed “hot head” at times, MacK­in­non is smart enough to know about wast­ed ener­gy in a superstar’s body. In the reg­u­lar sea­son, he doesn’t need to deliv­er big hits and mix it up with oppo­nents after the whis­tle. In the play­offs, his bound­aries expand.

“It’s impor­tant to treat your oppo­nents with respect, but also play hard, play between the whis­tles,” MacK­in­non, the 2014 Calder Tro­phy win­ner, said after win­ning his sec­ond major NHL award. “It’s impor­tant that your coach­es can trust you in key sit­u­a­tions and you won’t take a minor and put your team on the penal­ty kill. Obvi­ous­ly, it’s amaz­ing to win this award — some of the best play­ers ever have won this award — so for me to also win this is very hum­bling and exciting.”

Sakic won the Lady Byng in 2001 after pro­duc­ing 118 points in 82 reg­u­lar-sea­son games, with just 30 penal­ty min­utes. O’Reilly won the award in 2014 with 62 points and just two penal­ty min­utes in 80 games.

Sakic was, and O’Reilly is, very mild-man­nered. MacK­in­non is not, but his incred­i­ble skat­ing enables him to defend with­out reach­ing with his stick. He’s a puck-pos­ses­sion machine and, although he’s high­ly emo­tion­al, he’s not mean-spirited.

“With my skat­ing, I try to use my legs to stick-check and things like that, and not take unnec­es­sary minors,” MacK­in­non said. “It’s a line you need to hov­er on. I respect my oppo­nents. I don’t want to be dirty.”

He cer­tain­ly speaks like a very wor­thy Lady Byng Tro­phy recipient.