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Toronto Maple Leafs Forward Grades 2019-20 Regular Season

By James Tanner

TORONTO, ON - DECEMBER 17: Ilya Mikheyev #65 of the Toronto Maple Leafs waits for a faceoff against the Buffalo Sabres during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on December 17, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Sabres 5-3.(Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - DECEMBER 17: Ilya Mikheyev #65 of the Toronto Maple Leafs waits for a faceoff against the Buffalo Sabres during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on December 17, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Sabres 5-3.(Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /
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Toronto Maple Leafs
SAN JOSE, CA – JANUARY 26: Auston Matthews #34 and John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs . (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

John Tavares

The season for John Tavares got off to a rocky start when he was injured in October and missed seven games.

By the time he came back, the Toronto Maple Leafs were in a tailspin that culminated in the firing of Mike Babcock in mid November.

Tavares didn’t have his best season, but stall managed an excellent 60 points in 63 games.

Tavares was worth almost 4 wins last year and had dream debut with the Leafs.  This year, he was worth only 2, which still made him better than 80% of other players, but was slightly off the pace he set last year when he flirted with a 50 goal season.

Hyman started the year injured, then played a lot with Matthews.  Marner wasn’t as good as he was last year, Tavares missed the aforementioned seven games, but I would suspect his thumb was injured for a lot longer and cost him quite a few points.

Then there was the coaching change, the team changing styles, and the final 12 games getting cancelled.

I’m listing this stuff because I think it paints a picture that excuses a lot of the drop off in Tavares’ game between last year and this year.  I don’t this is an age related decline (he is only 29) and I would fully expect the Captain to have a bounce back year next season.

B. . C. . JOHN TAVARES

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