Toronto Maple Leafs forward John Tavares is one goal away from reaching the historic 500-goal mark.
John Tavares might be the most underappreciated superstar in the NHL right now. Currently in his eighth season with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the 35-year-old is off to another great start with five goals and 12 points in nine games.
In seven games, he'll reach 1,200 career games played and is nearly a career point-per-game player with 1,126 points thus far. Since Tavares hasn't won a Stanley Cup in Toronto yet, it feels like fans have been very critical on him despite being conistent for 17 straight seasons.
Every single season, Tavares continues to put up great stats, but sometimes is the black sheep. Despite being stripped of his captaincy, he still signed a hometown discount contract worth $4.38 million AAV for four seasons to try to win a Stanley Cup in his hometown.
In an interview on TSN's First Up on Monday morning, TSN's Darren Dreger praised Tavares.
Tavares could reach 500 career goals Tuesday
“If he truly explored the open market, just had it gotten to that point—he didn’t want it to get to that point. If it had been even remotely about money, he wouldn’t be in Toronto. He wouldn’t be. And he’d be doing the same thing probably somewhere else.
This guy wants to win a Stanley Cup in Toronto. He’s raising a family in Toronto, and he loves the game...You go back to the previous contract at $11 million flat, and there was a lot of bemoaning over how Tavares was strapping the Toronto Maple Leafs as an organization. You could build a case for John Tavares being the most consistent producer for the Toronto Maple Leafs.”
It's easy to look at Auston Matthews and William Nylander as the two leaders for Toronto, but Tavares' name needs to be right there with those two. Not only is he putting up the consistent numbers like Nylander and Matthews but he's doing it for a fraction of the price.
We don't know this as a fact, but it's safe to assume that both Nylander and Matthews will be running to the Leafs for a hometown discount when their next contract is up.
Tavares easily could have walked away from Toronto to chase a Stanley Cup or money somewhere else but he clearly only wants to play in Toronto and win here. As much as Toronto is the hockey capital in Canada, there's not as many players as you think that are dying to play in Toronto.
Lesser known hockey markets such as Florida, Tampa Bay and Dallas are the ones who have been able to attact players recently, so it's a breathe of fresh air when Tavares wants to play here and delivers every night. Despite being 35-years-old, he's been the Leafs best forward in the first month of the season and don't be surprised if he pushes for a spot on Team Canada in Februray.