Patrick Maroon gives all the credit for his breakout campaign last season to Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
The Edmonton Oilers forward demolished his previous career high of 11 goals - tallying 27 last season while also putting up a career-best 42 points - largely playing alongside one or both of McDavid and Draisaitl.
"Obviously without those two I wouldn't have the success I did, but sometimes you've got to give yourself some credit too," Maroon said, according to NHL.com's Louie Korac. "Those two are very tremendous players, and for me I've just got to keep doing what I'm doing to stay with them.
"Obviously Todd McLellan had a really big part in that. He gave me an opportunity to play with those two. For me, I've just got to continue what I did last year, come (to training camp) in really good shape again and hopefully good things fall into place again."
Given the incredible talent both youngsters have shown in such a short time, Maroon knows it's up to him to do some of the dirty work when he is on the ice alongside the two - going to the net, banging away at pucks, and getting into the open areas.
"Playing with Connor and Leon Draisaitl last year, a lot of people don't give Leon enough credit because there's always Connor there," Maroon said. "But I think with both of them together really helped me out last year. They obviously see things that certain players don't see. So for me, I think I was trying to do my part, be big and strong, go to the net hard and hoping for them to find me and hopefully clean up the mess if they got a shot or whatever."
In all, Maroon proved to be a vital part of the Oilers' offense during the regular season and the playoffs - where he tallied another eight points in 13 games. There is certainly renewed confidence in Edmonton and, while Maroon and Co. will look to improve on last year's performance, the big winger understands that nothing is guaranteed.
"I think for us, we can't expect to just do it again," Maroon said. "We've got to start out of the gate hot and play how we're capable of playing and go into the season with confidence and a swagger that we are a good hockey team.
"I think everyone's excited to get this season started. Last year was a tough fall to Anaheim, but we've bounced and we came a long way. It was a proud moment not only for the organization but the players to see how far we came from the year before to doing that. I think the guys are really excited and anxious to get the season started. We know what we're capable of and we know what we have to do to make the playoffs again."
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