When John Tavares signed that big contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, part of the expectation was that he could teach the team’s budding superstars Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
At the relatively advanced age of 28 and with nine NHL seasons under his belt with the New York Islanders, there was a lot Tavares could pass along to the pair of 21-year-olds.
Funny thing, though, Tavares said the other night. He’s actually learning a thing or two from them.
First, Tavares said, once he spent some time with Matthews and Marner he realized “they’re probably better than I thought.” Clearly, since Marner’s slick passing has helped Tavares score 17 goals in 26 games, putting him on pace for a career-high 54.
Over on the other of the Leafs’ top two lines, Matthews came back from a month-long absence because of a shoulder injury to match Tavares’s two goals and add an assist in Wednesday’s 5-3 win over the San Jose Sharks. That puts Matthews at 12 goals in 12 games, which puts a 40- or 45-goal season well within reach.
“Just being around every day, you understand and learn more and more why they are special players and why they still have so much room to grow,” Tavares said. “They’re both very driven. They’re both very different but very driven. Great people and fun to be around.
“I think they bring a lot of energy to the group. For a guy like me, who’s a little bit too serious at times, it helps me out.”
Perhaps that last point might be the most important one. Because what’s stood out about Tavares since he joined his hometown team is that he has the demeanour of your average tax auditor. Yukking it up, Tavares admits, has never been part of his personality.
“For me, it’s always been more of that business-type of approach and just being a little methodical in some ways,” he said. “[Matthews and Marner] are a little bit free-spirited, just being themselves, showing their personality. That brings it out in everyone in the locker room, not just myself.
“It’s great to be around guys who have that kind of energy, are hungry to play and have the ability to just enjoy what they’re doing every day, especially in a spotlight like this. I’m not sure, maybe it’s just that I’ve got more results that way. It’s just the way I’ve always been.”
Hanging around the younger pair, though, has shown Tavares that there’s more than one route to excellence.
“Definitely you start to find that balance,” he said. “That’s why it’s great to be part of a good group of guys. You’re all in it together, and everyone brings their own type of personality, their own type of approach and you feed off one another.”
When it comes to Tavares’s serious side, Marner says he has not “really seen that too much.” But, Marner added, it is hard to carry yourself like a bank president with a youthful group like the Maple Leafs.
“He’s pretty lackadaisical around here now,” Marner said of Tavares. “We’re a pretty loose team. We like to have fun with each other. We got a lot of young bodies in here that joke around a lot.”
But what impresses Tavares most is that Matthews and Marner know when to put the jokes aside.
“It’s all around the way they carry themselves, but I think it really comes out when they play the game, how competitive they are,” Tavares said. “You see the drive and determination they have in practice or in games to be successful and be the players they want to be.”
The determination manifests itself in the way Matthews and Marner go after the puck.
“I think it’s just their ability to hound pucks and track pucks and be able to cause turnovers,” Tavares said. “You see it pretty much every night. They think in all three zones, they have the ability to anticipate plays and pick guys off, restrict guys.
“Yeah, just that hunger to have the puck and to get it back when you don’t have it. They play an all-round game.”
As the Leafs prepared for Saturday’s road game against the Minnesota Wild, and William Nylander’s accompanying signing deadline of 5 p.m. ET, there was the usual media talk about whether he will sign in time to play this season, get traded or have to sit this one out. But the only thing that happened at Thursday’s practice that was even faintly newsworthy was when defenceman Ron Hainsey was hit in the face by a stray puck and had to get stitches.
“At first, to be honest with you, I thought it was just a veteran move to get off the ice,” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said. “I didn’t realize he was cut, and now he’s got to be sewn up.”
Babcock, by the way, says he and the rest of the Leafs organization are still convinced Nylander will sign for the long term before the deadline.