Centre of attraction
Tavares joins Matthews and Kadri to give Leafs enviable murderers’ row up the middle
It was only a few years ago that the whole concept of Sunday’s Canada Day press conference at the big rink on Bay Street would have seemed wholly implausible to a Maple Leafs fan.
John Tavares’s seismic arrival in the blue and white, in what could ultimately go down as the most impactful free-agent signing of hockey’s salarycap era, meant Toronto’s NHL team could suddenly make a case for employing the best lineup of centremen in the league. Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri were already central to a team that set a franchise record for points last season. So adding Tavares, who has scored the fifth-most goals in the NHL since he arrived in 2009 — well, only a few years ago it would have been the stuff of Toronto pipe dreams, like LeBron James exiting the Eastern Conference. Now, Johnny T is in Toronto. And unless the Raptors meet James and the Lakers in next year’s NBA final, they’ll no longer be calling it LeBronto.
Centres, specifically a centre worthy of being called a No. 1, had long been the Maple Leafs’ ever-elusive white whale. Before Toronto drafted Auston Matthews in 2016, after all, the Leafs had been searching for a quality man in the middle for most of the decade since the exit of Mats Sundin. And before the Maple Leafs were informed Saturday that Tavares wanted to join the team, the concept of adding “depth down the middle” meant picking up, say, a Tomas Plekanec or a Brian Boyle as a trade-deadline rental. Even back in March, when the Maple Leafs were en route to setting a franchise record for points in a season, head coach Mike Babcock lamented what he saw as an organizational weakness.
“In the middle of the ice we’ve still got to get way deeper,” Babcock said.
So on Sunday even the never-satisfied Babcock had to tip his hat to Leafs management for a remarkable transformation.
“It’s special,” Babcock said, speaking of the centre-ice troika. How special? Combining the past two seasons just nine NHL centremen have compiled at least 40 even-strength goals. Matthews (with 61), Tavares (43), and Kadri (40) are three of them. The others are only named Connor McDavid, Eric Staal, Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Tyler Seguin and Sean Monahan.
Suddenly, after too many years as centre-starved pretenders, the Maple Leafs are the ones with the murderers’ row of big shooters.
For the diehard supporters, Tavares’s arrival was a triumphant moment, and not only because a world-class local boy finally decided to come home after Drew Doughty and Steven Stamkos only teased. Prosperity is best appreciated on the heels of misery. Certainly Leaf loyalists endured plenty of the latter when the team searched for No. 1 centre depth in the post-Sundin personage of Nik Antropov and Matt Stajan and Tim Connolly and Mikhail Grabovski. Remember the summer of 2012, when Randy Carlyle had the brainwave to convert James van Riemsdyk into a No. 1 centreman? Back then they were begging for one competent stud. Now they’ve got centres, plural.
On Sunday, the Leafs replaced the 36 goals that walked out the door when van Riemsdyk signed with the Philadelphia Flyers with the 37 goals Tavares scored last season.
John Tavares spoke frankly, and often emotionally, about what it means to him to become a Toronto Maple Leaf.
Yes, it’s the childhood team of his dreams and he invoked the names of Doug Gilmour, Wendel Clark, Mats Sundin and Steve Thomas.
But it was joining a young team on the rise for the next seven years — not the accompanying $77 million U.S. of his contract — that seemed to be the tipping point in his decision about where to pursue the Stanley Cup.
“I believe this team has a great opportunity, and not just for the first few years of my contract,” said Tavares. “For me what was important was all seven years. I really believe there is a big window here to win and be a part of something special.
“To be from here, you start to get those emotions coming. It just felt right. It’s what I wanted to do. I know it’s a bit of an uncomfortable thing for me to do, but I didn’t want that to hold me back from a great opportunity.”
It was a surreal Canada Day, with workers switching over the signage from the Air Canada Centre to Scotiabank Arena and a real feeling that things are different around the Maple Leafs. A franchise that was once a laughingstock now has one of the game’s premier players choosing to come here. A couple of years ago, Lightning captain Steve Stamkos declined this same opportunity.
But the Leafs are a very different team now. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander have moved from prospects to stars. From finishing dead last to setting a franchise record for points, the Maple Leafs have stepped forward into Stanley Cup contention.
Tavares is a big reason why the Leafs will be considered in that conversation for some time. With Matthews, Tavares and Nazem Kadri, they boast three terrific centres.
“It’s special,” said Leafs coach Mike Babcock.
“So we’re going to be deep down the middle and that is exciting for us. You look at the teams that have success, they are deep down the middle, they have a good defence and are solid in net. We think we are set up pretty good in that way. John being older and John going through the hard knocks of the National Hockey League already, no different than Patrick Marleau when he arrived, the impact he can have on our young people is going to be immense.”
Obviously happy, Tavares was exhausted after mulling over his future for nearly a week. He spoke only of getting a good night’s rest as the way to celebrate the lucrative contract. Babcock seemed giddy by comparison, offering the line combinations he’s etched out, at least at this juncture of the off-season: Tavares will play with Zach Hyman and Marner, Matthews with Marleau and Nylander.
“I think Mitch’s skill set, John’s skill set, Mitch is so quick, and the other side of that is that Nylander and Matthews play great together, too,” said Babcock. “We’re deep enough that Naz is going to have really good linemates, too. So is (freeagent centre Par) Lindholm. When you go through it up front, we’re going to have lots of depth and lots of speed and we will find really good mixes for those guys.”
Tavares is the team’s highestpaid player with a cap hit of $11 million a year. Nylander is a restricted free agent and in need of a deal — probably in the $6million range that will leave the Leafs with decent cap space and very little need to sign more players.
Matthews and Marner are up for extension and one or both could eclipse Tavares’s dollar figures in 2019-20.
Those issues are for the future. His teammates were all about welcoming the star — Tavares is a difference-maker with 272 goals and 349 assists for 621points in 666 games — to the team.
Tavares said Marleau — a veteran who left the only team he’d ever played for in San Jose for the promise of the Leafs — was instrumental in making his decision, and he was inundated by calls from his new teammates.
“Welcome aboard,” tweeted Matthews. “Welcome home,” tweeted Marner.
“It’s exciting,” said defenceman Morgan Rielly. “It’s a big piece, it’s a big day, but there’s a lot of work to be done to achieve the end goal. He knows that, we know that.”
That end goal? Winning the Stanley Cup.
It hasn’t happened in Toronto since 1967. Tavares was at a loss to say what it would mean to win it as a Leaf.
“I mean, it’s hard to put that in words, right? People have been waiting for it for a long time. People are hungry for it. The passion for the game, the passion for their Maple Leafs, is unprecedented.”