FRIBOURG, Switzerland \u2014 John Tavares hasn\u2019t served as captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs in a couple of years, but that isn\u2019t about to stop him from mentoring whoever his team selects with the first pick in next month\u2019s NHL Draft.<\/p>\n
Tavares knows what it\u2019s like being the No. 1 pick, and also knows what it\u2019s like playing in Toronto.<\/p>\n
He plans to hand over all the knowledge at his disposal to Gavin McKenna \u2014\u00a0or whoever else the Leafs might draft.<\/p>\n
Tavares spoke with The Athletic following Canada\u2019s 3-1 victory over Slovenia at the IIHF World Championship in Switzerland on Friday.<\/p>\n
He smirked when asked about the pressure cooker of being the No. 1 pick, merging with the ultimate pressure cooker of playing in Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can look at it that way and see all of the pressure of playing there,\u201d Tavares said. \u201cBut I prefer to look at it as an amazing opportunity. When you\u2019re the top overall pick, that\u2019s a different set of circumstances to begin with. It\u2019s a really special thing. Then throw in that it\u2019s an Original Six team, and that it\u2019s an organization like Toronto, with all the history. It\u2019s an amazing fan base, an incredible place to play. I know I love playing there. And I happen to think that the fan base is going to support whoever we take and it\u2019s going to be a good thing, and an exciting thing for whoever it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tavares, a No. 1 pick with the Islanders in 2009, dealt with the pressure of being the expected savior of a struggling team.<\/p>\n
But the Maple Leafs aren\u2019t the typical team that would receive the top pick, not with the likes of Auston Matthews and William Nylander in their prime years. Tavares, despite being 35, is coming off another strong season in which he produced 31 goals and 71 points.<\/p>\n
Tavares believes the star power on hand will ease the burden of being the top pick in arguably hockey\u2019s most volatile market.<\/p>\n
He also came to the defense of the most recent generation of Maple Leafs hockey, which plummeted this season following a number of postseason flameouts.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at the talent we already have, the foundation that we have,\u201d Tavares said. \u201cLook at the players we have. It\u2019s on us to be the ones to steer the ship back into the right direction. It\u2019s not just on whoever we draft. We have built something in Toronto. It\u2019s something we\u2019ve been working at for a while. We know we haven\u2019t had the success in the postseason that we\u2019d like to have. But we also know just how hard it is to even get to the postseason. I just think this is all a good thing, the talent that we already have and we\u2019re going to select a very talented, skilled player who is going to give the team and the fans a ton of energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tavares is happy to be in Switzerland playing for his country after what was a grueling season for just about everyone associated with the Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n
A month after the season concluded, he still shakes his head when asked about what happened to the Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it was an incredibly disappointing year, and on a lot of fronts,\u201d he said. \u201cThings just got completely off track for us. It was disappointing, the way the whole year went.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tavares knows he only has so many chances left to play for Team Canada. Before he has the chance to help resuscitate the Maple Leafs, he\u2019s enjoying himself overseas, playing with the likes of Sidney Crosby and Macklin Celebrini.<\/p>\n
Why is he still playing in the world championships at his age?<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than anything, I just love to play,\u201d he said. \u201cAs you get older, you appreciate every chance that you have to keep playing the game. So, yeah, it was a very disappointing season for us back in Toronto. This is kind of a second life for me. It\u2019s amazing any time you\u2019re asked to represent your country. You never take that for granted, no matter how many times you\u2019ve done it. Where I am in my career, you cherish every chance that you get. So, I\u2019m very happy to be here representing my country. I don\u2019t ever take this lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Come September, the hard work will begin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to welcome whoever this is that we draft into our organization,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a player that will be a big part of the present and the future for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRIBOURG, Switzerland \u2014 John Tavares hasn\u2019t served as captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs in a couple of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85,2370],"class_list":["post-689515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-toronto-maple-leafs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}