CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Jan Drozg is no stranger to putting his team on his back.
Drozg, the Penguins' fifth-round pick in 2017, has played for the QMJHL's Shawinigan Cataractes for the past two seasons, a young, rebuilding team.
The Cataractes finished 16th in the 18-team QMJHL last season, finishing with a record of 14-49-2-3. Drozg was the only player on the team with ties to an NHL team during the season, although one teammate -- Simon Benoit -- signed with the Ducks as a free agent at the end of the season, and another -- Valentin Nussbaumer -- was drafted by the Coyotes in the seventh round in June.
Drozg, 20, led the Cataractes in scoring in the regular season and playoffs, finishing with 21 goals and 41 assists in 60 points in the regular season, and four goals and two assists in six playoff games. He factored into 33 percent of all Cataractes regular season goals, and 43 percent of all Cataractes postseason goals.
"Shawinigan, the second season in a row we had the youngest team in the league," Drozg told me. "That's pretty tough, but that's good for me because I was the older guy. I had more ice time, I played power play, all that stuff, and that's important. So I think it was good for my development to play on that young team."
In the past two seasons Drozg has focused on growing his overall game, but especially his two-way game, something pretty easy to do on such a young team. Last summer, he joked that, “All of the season we play most of the game in our zone, so I learned good defense there."
With last season going much of the same way, he thinks he continued to make strides in his defensive side.
"Every season you improve on something," he said. "I think I put the most attention on my defensive game, so I think I developed pretty well in that. But there's always something you need to work on every season."
Drozg was away from the Cataractes in December to represent Slovenia in the World Junior Championship Division-I B tournament, where he had a similar experience. With four goals and eight assists in five games, he led not only Slovenia in scoring, but the entire D-I B tournament. He led Slovenia to an undefeated tournament and a promotion to the Division-I A tournament for next year.
"That was really nice, that was the best part of last season," Drozg recalled to me. "It was something special. I'm really happy for the team, for the country, for us. It was really fun."
The tournament doesn’t track time on ice as a statistic, but from the games I watched, there were few times when Drozg was not on the ice. In the first game, he must have played 15 minutes in the first period alone.
"I don't know how many minutes I play, but I know I had a lot of ice time," he laughed. "Coach really liked me, he trusted me on the ice, that was a good thing. I think I played power play, shorthanded, that kind of stuff. ... It's great, it means you're doing the right thing. It pushes you forward. I just hope that kind of tournament we can do it again."
Shortly after the tournament ended the Kings played in Pittsburgh, along with Anze Kopitar, the only Slovenian-born player in league history to be drafted higher than Drozg. Kopitar is familiar with Drozg after playing with him in the main World Championship tournament, and he offered some praise for his young countryman.
“It’s a great thing for him and for our hockey to grow a bit," he said. "I saw that they won, that’s really good for him. ... (Drozg's ice time) just goes to show that he's is one of the leaders and one of the best players on the team. I’m sure he doesn’t mind the ice time.”
For Drozg, it's special to have someone like Kopitar say those kinds of things about him.
"It means a lot it me," he said. "It pushes you forward. You have the motivation, so I'm happy to hear that."
With the Cataractes' season ending early in each of the last two seasons, Drozg finished both years as a Black Ace in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, playing one game in 2017-18, and two games in 2018-19. His stints there were short, but he feels like he was able to learn a little about what it takes to be a pro.
"It's a big difference," he said. "The hockey is way faster, and the guys are more stronger and smarter, so the game is harder. But it's nice. When you're there, you learn how things work in the games, so every day there got easier."
Drozg will go pro full-time this season, and his goal for this season is just to continue to learn how to play at that level.
"Everyone wants to be a pro on the ice, so I need to learn."
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