Toronto Maple Leafs: John Tavares Is the Goal Scoring Champ of the NHL

The Toronto Maple Leafs signed John Tavares last summer to the biggest unrestricted free agent contract in NHL history.

It is safe to say that hometown hero John Tavares lived up to the billing in his first season with the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

Tavares joined the Leafs and immediately gave them the best centre depth in the NHL.  As well as probably the best roster of forwards in the NHL.

The pressure on Tavares to perform this season must have been enormous. It’s not often players bolt the team that drafts them in free agency, it’s even rarer that a hometown kid goes home to play for the team he grew up cheering for.

That that team would also occupy the epicentre of the NHL makes it still rarer.  Despite producing more NHL players than anywhere else, Ontario has never had a high-profile superstar return home and intentionally take on the magnifying presence of the NHL’s biggest market and smallest fishbowl.

I guess it should be no surprise, if you really think about it, that a player willing to accept this pressure would have absolutely no trouble delivering on the promise he made when he accepted $11 million dollars per season to come home.

Tavares not only lived up to expectations, he shattered them.

Goal Scoring Title

Tavare had a career high 47 goals and 88 points.  His previous best was 38 and 86.

Tavares might have lost the Rocket Richard Trophy to Alex Ovechkin’s 51, but Tavare did lead the NHL in 5v5 scoring.

It’s harder and more helpful to your team to score goals at 5v5 than it is on the power-play.  The goal scoring trophy naturally has to go to the player who scores the most goals, because otherwise it’s too confusing for the casual fan.

However, it is technically a more impressive feat to lead the league in 5v5 scoring.  Tavares had 33 5v5 goals, five more than either of the two players (Ovechkin and Draisaitl) to score more than him overall.

If we include all even-strength scenarios (4v4 etc.) Tavares still led the NHL with 37 E/S goals.  (Stats from naturalstattrick.com).

If we look at all players who played a minimum of 1000 5v5 minutes, guess who scored the most goals per minute? That’s right, John Tavares.

He is the goal scoring king.

Consider also, that Tavares plays on the same power-play as Auston Matthews and you know why he doesn’t have the same power-play goal scoring numbers as Draisaitl and Ovechkin, both of whom are the go-to option on their respective team’s power-plays.

John Tavares won’t get the Rocket Richard Trophy to put into his trophy case, but he was the best goal scorer in the NHL this season.

He has already met and exceeded the ridiculous expectations that came when he singed with the Toronto Maple Leafs.