Twitter: Tavares was the top NHL moment
John Tavares’ decision to sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs this past summer didn’t just make a splash in the NHL freeagency market, it made one online too.
Tavares posted a photo of himself as a child, sleeping under a Maple Leafs duvet, his head resting on pillows with the team’s logo, early in the afternoon of July 1, when NHL free agency opened.
Tavares’s caption: “Not everyday you can live a childhood dream.”
That tweet served as the official announcement of his homecoming and has since been retweeted more than 31,000 times with over 109,000 likes.
Twitter released data on Wednesday revealing that it was the most mentioned NHL moment in Canada in the past 12 months and helped Tavares become the most followed Canadian player in the league, surpassing defenceman P.K. Subban of the Nashville Predators.
“July 1 is always a big day for conversation, free-agent signings, people love to chime in on that,” said Christopher Doyle, head of sports at Twitter Canada. “The way Tavares represented himself in the Twitter conversation with an amazing tweet, referencing his childhood dream coming true, that was an outstanding tweet.”
The second most mentioned moment of the past year was the Winnipeg Jets’ 5-1 win over Nashville in Game 7 of the West semifinal. Daniel and Henrik Sedin’s final game with the Vancouver Canucks was third.