He became an unrestricted free agent in 2018 and signed a seven-year, $77 million contract ($11 million average annual value) with his hometown Maple Leafs. He has 502 points (226 goals, 276 assists) in 522 regular-season games. He signed a four-year, $17.52 million contract ($4.38 million AAV) on June 27 that will keep him with Toronto through the 2028-29 season.

On Saturday, his two-goal performance in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken made him the fourth player in NHL history to have at least 500 points with two different teams, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Ron Francis.

And now he’s poised to become the 49th player in NHL history to reach the 500-goal milestone. The only previous player to score No. 500 in a Maple Leafs uniform: franchise icon Mats Sundin, who did it on Oct. 14, 2006.

“I’m actually not trying to think about it too much,” Tavares told NHL.com. “I want to earn it. And when the moment comes, it’ll make it that much more special.

“Even as a kid, I was an offensive player, and when you’re counted on in those areas, you want to be consistent, you want to be really, really good, and to produce and to put the puck in the net.”

Even in those 1-on-1 games with Sam Gagner in the backyard rink.

“From my memory as a kid, I think there was always a drive to score,” he said. “I mean, the name of the game was whoever scores the most goals wins, right? So, you know, I wanted to go out there, and I think I was driven to excel. And scoring was a big part of that.”

For John Tavares, NHL veteran and fledgling hockey dad, it still is.

Inspiration to achieve greatness for young John wasn’t hard to find.

All he had to do was look across the dining room table at Thanksgiving and see it in the form of his uncle John, the Wayne Gretzky of lacrosse, if you will.

Uncle John Tavares, now the coach of the National Lacrosse League’s Buffalo Bandits, is the NLL’s all-time leader in goals (815) and points (1,749). Every time John plays against the Sabres, like he will on Friday, he looks to the rafters of KeyBank Center to see his uncle’s banner.

Now, Nephew John has the chance to make history in that very rink if he scores twice Friday.

“I’ve got to say, that would be so cool,” Uncle John told NHL.com Wednesday. “I mean, when he was a little kid, he spent time as a ball boy for us. All these years later, if he were to hit that milestone in that same building where he was a ball boy, that would be so special. I mean, getting 500 goals anywhere is special, don’t get me wrong. But again, in that same building …

“As he’s gotten closer to 500 you start to hear talk about him maybe being a Hall of Fame candidate. Just being in the conversation is a big deal. I mean, I remember when he was made captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, it was so cool for me because I grew up a Maple Leafs fan.

“I’m just very proud of him.”

Whenever, wherever, however he gets that milestone goal, the influence that his uncle had on him will never be forgotten.

“When you have a family member of his stature, and probably the greatest player in his sport, and that type of influence, you know when you’re 7, 8, 9, 10, 11-years old, you see the work he puts in, what it takes to be a pro and how to stay grounded,” Tavares said “I learned so much being around him. It was amazing.”

Uncle John remembers how quickly his nephew picked up whatever sport he tried, especially hockey and lacrosse.

“(A colleague) and I were running a lacrosse school and we invited John for the first time,” he said. “He might have been the youngest kid there. By the time camp was over, we figured he might have been the best player there, age notwithstanding. And it was his first camp.

“John’s always had an amazing learning curve. When other kids were watching cartoons at 5, he was watching Wayne Gretzky videos. When he was a ball boy with us and standing on the playing floor, he wasn’t just watching what was going on — he was studying it.”

Nephew John said he wasn’t sure whether he would follow the career path of hockey or lacrosse, a sport he also loved, until he received special player status from the OHL. Even then, he credits lacrosse for helping him be better in certain aspects of his NHL game.

“I think in lacrosse, the thing that I probably found that translated for me in hockey, is playing in traffic,” he said. “Like in hockey, I was playing with kids two or three years older than me sometimes. So, yeah, I wasn’t as physically strong as some of the others. So, when I was 11, playing against 13, 14-year-olds, there’s a big difference at times.”

As such, he needed to find ways to create scoring opportunities against bigger opponents.

“Whether it’s rolling off checks, protecting your stick and taking physical contact, absorbing contact, and how to be able to make plays through that, those are the things that probably translated the most for me from lacrosse to hockey,” he said.

Whether it was coaching Tavares in minor hockey with the Toronto Marlboros or sporadically watching him and Sam in the backyard rink, Dave Gagner saw firsthand those same traits and talents that made John a special player, even at a young age.

“He was always extremely strong on a stick, even against the older kids,” Dave Gagner recalled. “Maybe it came from lacrosse but it’s something we really didn’t have to teach him. It was kind of like he came with that.

“He knew where to go. He knew when to get open. I mean, a lot of goal-scoring is timing. You can’t be too early. You can’t be too late, obviously. So his timing was very good. Always. He knew when to hit the holes and he could finish. I mean, he scored, I don’t know, 80 or 90 goals every year for us in, like, 60 games or 70 games.