Toronto Maple Leafs: The Criticism Of John Tavares Is Unjust

Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun called out John Tavares earlier this week and his criticism of the Toronto Maple Leafs captain is completely unjust.

The fact that we’re having a conversation about the Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares being overpaid and washed up is ridiculous in the first place.

Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun wrote an article earlier this week completely bashing Tavares. He mentions that he’s “the kind of guy you cheer for” but tears him apart within the column. You can read the full piece here.

Don’t get me wrong, $11M per season for seven years is a lot of money. But this is John Tavares we’re talking about. He makes $2M more per season than Jeff Skinner for goodness sakes.

The Leafs made him captain for a reason and he could arguably end up being one of the greatest Toronto Maple Leafs to ever play.

But, yeah, let’s bash the guy for playing “bad” in the post-season.

Here’s another quote from the article:

"But the Leafs have needed it to be more than that for the past two post-seasons. They needed a rising stock. In 12 games, seven playoffs, five pre-real-playoffs, he has eight points. That’s a 55-point pace. That’s not good enough.That’s not what Brayden Point did for Tampa Bay on its way to a Stanley Cup. Point had 33 points in 23 games. That’s not what Nathan MacKinnon managed for Colorado. He had 25 points in 15 games."

The way he writes this makes you think that Tavares is a fourth-liner, instead of a top-line centre. He had five points in seven games against Boston, and three points in five games against Columbus. Are you actually expecting him to have a goal and assist in every single game he plays?

Those numbers aren’t bad. More importantly, you can’t just judge a player on his point totals, especially in a short sample size.  Tavares scores over a point per game, which is super star production.  He did that this season despite an obvious hand injury.

In the playoffs, Columbus had one of the best goaltending performances in NHL playoff history, stopping 98% of 5v5 shots, while barely taking any penalties.  In this year’s playoffs, Tavaers had a 57% Corsi, the Leafs got 58% of the shots when he was on the ice, and 61% of the expected goals.

Those are Conn Smythe level, super-star numbers.  They are far more indicative of Tavares play than his point totals. (Stats naturalstattrick.com). 

In five games against Columbus this year, Tavares had 24 shots on net. He was all over the ice and had a ton of chances at scoring, but the team ran into a buzz saw. I can’t make this point enough, but I will again. If you play that Columbus-Toronto series 100 times, the Leafs win 95 percent of them.

If Tavares didn’t score a goal or register a point in the entire series, then it would be fine to talk trash, but can we not remember who this guy is? The hometown kid is one of the most consistent players of the past decade and is reliable as they come. I promise you if the Toronto Maple Leafs are able to play more than seven games a post-season, you will see a point-per game player. Even if he isn’t quite a point-per game player, who cares. His presence is worth the cap-hit, just look at the advanced numbers (which Simmons conveniently leaves out).

Having Tavares on your team, even at $11M, is more beneficial than not.  . We’ve waited decades for this team to be good and when it finally is, he gets criticized for being an old man who’s washed up.

He’s 30-years-old for crying out loud. For the next five seasons, you’re going to continue to see a point-per game player and 30 to 50 goal scorer. And you know what, you’re probably going to see a Stanley Cup winner as well. 

I’m not sure what ordinary looks like to you, but that’s not how Tavares has played in his two seasons with Toronto.