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“The future will be whatever you make it”

Those words are tattooed on the left arm of Nicolas Deslauriers — words his grandmother would always tell him as a young boy growing up in in Saint-Anicet. Now it looks like Deslauriers is making a nice future for himself with the Canadiens.

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In what has been a disappointing season for the Canadiens, Deslauriers is turning into a feel-good story about a local boy making good.

Deslauriers has scored six goals in 24 games with the Canadiens after they acquired him from the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 4 in exchange for defenceman Zach Redmond and then sent him to the AHL’s Laval Rocket. Deslauriers was later called up by the Canadiens to add a physical presence, but has done much more than that as a fourth-liner, scoring as many goals as first-line teammate Jonathan Drouin in 15 fewer games.

Deslauriers’s six goals — including one in Monday night’s 5-4 overtime loss to the New York Islanders — have come on only 29 shots, giving him a team-best 20.7 shooting percentage. He is also plus-10, the best plus/minus rating on the team. His 101 hits rank second on the Canadiens to Jeff Petry’s 105, but the defenceman has played 20 more games than Deslauriers.

The future will be whatever you make it.

“When people ask me how many tattoos I have, I can’t say how many,” Deslauriers, who has sleeve tattoos on both arms and much more ink on other parts of his body, said after practice Tuesday in Brossard. “It’s a lot. I think maybe it’s a way I express myself, just getting inked up. Sometimes maybe it looks bad-ass, like people say, but it’s the way I express myself with meaningful things to put on my body.”

The 6-foot-1, 215-pound Deslauriers is a physically imposing figure both on and off the ice, but has a warm smile, bright blue eyes and speaks with a soft voice. The 26-year-old admitted he’s surprised to have six goals after getting none last season in 42 games with the Sabres.