DENVER -- He is not kidding when he says it.

"I actually grew a quarter of an inch since last season. Growing boy, I guess," Nathan Mackinnon said this week, smiling.

So for your official records, mark him down now at six feet and three quarters of an inch, he says, up from six feet and a half inch.

That MacKinnon is still growing into his body is a reminder that, while the star from Nova Scotia is entering his third NHL season, he just turned 20 earlier this month.

Most players are entering their rookie season at that age.

It's why the Colorado Avalanche aren't all that bothered by a sophomore slump that saw the first overall pick in the 2013 NHL draft limited to 14 goals and 24 assists in 64 games.

"I don't make a big deal of it," Avs head coach Patrick Roy said. "I had a tough second year myself in the NHL. There's a lot of players who have had really good first years. Sometimes it's hard to reproduce. But Nate did a lot of good things last year, and I'm confident this season he's going to have a really good year. He had a tougher time scoring goals early on last year and maybe it affected his confidence. But he played some good hockey. Let's not forget he was 19 years old. We need to be fair in our judgment."

Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Duchene said they have learned from last season's struggles. Michael Martin/NHLI/Getty Images

One of the great benefits of playing hockey for this club is you've got one Hall of Famer behind the bench and another in the general manager's box, both great sounding boards when things aren't going all that well.

While Roy handles the majority of the day-to-day communication with the players, GM Joe Sakic picks his spots, and that was the case in his end-of-season meetings with both MacKinnon and Matt Duchene.

"I talked with them both at the end of last year," Sakic said. "Good conversations. They were separate conversations, but along the same lines, they're both goal-scorers. The key is to realize you're not going to score every night, and you do need to play well at both ends. Sometimes when you're not scoring, your frustration has you cheating on the offensive side. I went through it, too, as a player. That is the tendency. But as you get older, and I'm trying to help them through my experience so they don't have to go through it as much, but sometimes you have to do the other things to get those opportunities when you are in a slump."

Needless to say, MacKinnon and Duchene are all ears when a guy such as Sakic is doling out wisdom.

"It's good. He knows," MacKinnon said. "He started in the NHL at 18 like me. He played in the NHL 20 years. He gets it. He's won Cups and he was a captain. It's exciting to hear what he has to say because it's 100 percent true. He knows what he's talking about."

Duchene called it a "great" conversation.

"It set my summer up really well," the 24-year-old star said. "Being able to talk to Joe, and have him as a sounding board, the guy was my idol as a kid. We had a really good chat. He's a guy I like to lean on. He's been in my position. It's the same thing. There's no better guy to talk to than him."

For MacKinnon, Sakic's impact is to calm him down.

"He really helps just in relaxing me," MacKinnon said. "I'm a pretty uptight guy. I definitely need to relax. That's part of what we talked about -- not to be so hard on myself. The game is a roller coaster. I've played almost 150 games so far and I'm only 20. I think I've learned a lot about myself, about the NHL, the life, the roller coaster that it can be. You have two goals one night and you're minus-three the next game. It's how it goes. But it's fun; I love what I do. I'm excited about this year."

While the Avs chalk up MacKinnon's season to your normal sophomore blues, especially given his age, it's clear more is wanted from Duchene, who dipped to 55 points in 2014-15 after putting up a career-high 70 points the season before while also playing for Canada at the Olympics in Sochi.

The Avs went from fourth in the league in offense two years ago to 23rd last season, some of that due to a 29th-ranked power play, but certainly part and parcel with their top offensive players not producing at the levels they should.

"It was a good learning process for us last year; Duchy knows it's an important year," Roy said. "He knows he's going to have to perform well, and I think he's ready for that."

Joe Sakic picks his spots as to when he will address his players. John Leyba/Getty Images

Duchene said last season was incredibly frustrating, that there were many nights he actually felt better than he did the previous year when everything he touched turned to gold. But last season was the opposite; he couldn't buy a break, which in many ways was a microcosm of his team's overall season.

"It was a funny year, on a personal note and on a team note," Duchene said. "When it was just slightly off, it went really bad, and when we were on, it wasn't quite all the way on, in terms of bounces and things that happened. I think it was a good learning year for the team. I know I learned a lot and other guys did, too. Sometimes a step backwards is a good thing because it allows you to improve on things you need to improve on moving forward."

Such as?

"Not putting too much pressure on myself, just staying more even keel," he said. "It's tough sometimes in this league because when you expect a lot from yourself, that can be both a good thing and a bad thing. My biggest thing in the summer on a personal note was to sort those things out and come in refreshed and relaxed and not take it too, too seriously -- just the right amount, trust that you've done the work and you're ready."

MacKinnon says he learned from his sophomore struggles.

"I don't like having a tough year, but it happened and in the long run it's good. It could be a blessing in disguise," he said. "You never want that to happen but once it happens, you have to take it like a man and learn form it. No point in pouting about it. I'll take the positives from it and learn from it."

What you do sense from MacKinnon and Duchene are two guys champing at the bit. They seem poised for big, bounce-back seasons.

"People kind of write us off this year," MacKinnon said of the Avalanche team in general.

"But they don't realize that our forwards didn't play well last year. If we're clicking and going and scoring, we're a pretty dangerous hockey team. I'm excited to get it going."