John Tavares earned his 1,000th career point Monday. He became the 98th player in history to reach such a mark and if he produces at a normal pace, without injury, he should move ahead of Henri Richard, Daniel Sedin and Patrice Bergeron and move to 75th.
The top 40, maybe even the top 30, with Guy Lafleur and his 1,353 points in 29th place, is within reach of this 33-year-old center in the next few years.
This first overall pick in the NHL in 2009 is by far the best scorer of his vintage, 235 points ahead of Matt Duchene, third overall pick, 276 points ahead of Ryan O’Reilly, an early second round pick, and 321 points ahead of defenseman Victor Hedman, the second overall pick.
Despite his impressive production, Tavares will not have left his mark on hockey like some of the best players of his generation, like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews or Steven Stamkos.
Not only has Tavares yet to win the Stanley Cup in his fourteen-year career, but he has made the playoffs just eight times and won a round twice, in 2016 with the Islanders and last year with the Maple Leafs.
We would perhaps be less harsh on him if expectations had not been exaggeratedly inflated at each stage of his career.
At the dawn of the draft, many saw him as the reincarnation of Sidney Crosby, the first overall pick four years earlier. Not only did Tavares never have the talent of Crosby, one of the greats in history, but he did not possess the leadership or efficiency in all three zones.
Tavares was also a victim of bad decisions by the Islanders, never resolved, like the Penguins, on a real reconstruction and mediocre in the draft. However, they drafted four times in the top 5 after Tavares and obtained for only Michael Dal Colle, Griffin Reinhart, Ryan Strome and Nino Niederreiter.
Almost ten years after his arrival with the Islanders, the Toronto Maple Leafs made him the highest paid player in the NHL by offering him 77 million for seven years on the free agent market in July 2018, including 15.9 million in each of his first two seasons.
Tavares wasn’t responsible for the overbidding, but it was a ridiculous contract for a player who had never reached 40 goals or 90 points and had only 24 playoff games under his belt. This agreement contributed to increasing the pressure on him, on the Maple Leafs, and inflated the team’s payroll since young stars Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner now had to be paid accordingly.
After five full seasons in Toronto, Tavares and the Leafs have made it past the first round just once, last year. On their defense, they faced the Boston Bruins once, the Lightning once and Tavares was injured since the first game when the Canadiens eliminated Toronto in 2021.
On the other hand, Tavares does not have the excuse of being poorly surrounded as he was on Long Island, despite the absence of a top goalkeeper. And in 31 playoff games with Toronto, he has just 22 points on his record.
If he had not been the subject of an overrated reputation, Tavares would go down in history as one of the good offensive players in history, along with Mike Gartner, Pierre Turgeon, Jeremy Roenick and Bernie Nicholls. But because we saw it bigger than it actually was, we remain unsatisfied.
Mikko Rantanen sent an arrow to teammate Artturi Lehkonen’s father after scoring three points against the Calgary Flames on Monday. “The father of one of our Finnish players spoke badly about me publicly, implying that I didn’t train well this summer, so this match is for him, when you say stupid things it can bounce right in your face. »
Ismo Lehkonen, the father of the former Canadiens forward traded to the Avalanche for Justin Barron and a second-round pick in 2024, criticized the Colorado star recently during one of his appearances as an analyst at Finnish radio. “He didn’t have a very good summer. He participated in several events. He got to visit Helsinki and all that. He may have eased off after several summers of hard work. »
After 28 games, Rantanen, the tenth overall pick in 2015, has 34 points, including 13 goals, en route to a second straight 100-point season.
