Tavares Continues To Exceed Expectations In Maple Leafs Tenure With Latest Milestone

John Tavares recently hit a milestone that reinforces how remarkable his tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs has been.

After scoring his 20th goal of the season in the Maple Leafs' 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 7, the 34-year-old tied Alex Ovechkin for the most 20-goal campaigns since the 2009-10 season with 15.

There are only a handful of players that can be mentioned alongside Ovechkin — the man who's defying all logic by chasing Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record — when it comes to goal-scoring.

For further context on how impressive this accomplishment is, the NHL's shortened 2020 season is the only time in Tavares' career that he hasn't hit the 20-goal mark, finishing with 19 in 56 games.

This achievement is one of many examples that display Tavares' longevity and consistency as a top goal-scorer of his era. Since he entered the league in the 2009-10 season, only Ovechkin (653) and Steven Stamkos (544) have scored more than Tavares (476).

It is also worth mentioning how Tavares' style of play is so drastically different from players like Ovechkin and Stamkos. He doesn't possess one trait that separates him from the rest of the league's top scorers. There's no blistering one-timer, no breakneck speed to his game, and his brilliance can often come off as subtle.

He's one of the game's most intelligent players, doing most of his work in tight spaces around the net. It's a style of play that relies on a high IQ and willingness to get to the difficult areas of the ice. He's been able to adapt and translate this style of play while physically regressing and the game itself continuously evolving. It's no secret that Tavares has lost some foot speed, but that hasn't made him less effective.

In total, 204 of his 476 goals have come as a member of the Maple Leafs, his hometown team that he joined in the summer of 2018. The amount of pressure Tavares faced by deciding to join the franchise and serve as captain for five seasons cannot be overstated.

Signing a historic seven-year, $77-million deal comes with incredibly high expectations. While the team has yet to hoist a Stanley Cup in his tenure, Tavares has undoubtedly lived up to the hype with his sustained excellence.

When teams agree to contracts that expire when players are in their mid-to-late thirties, there's some anticipation that their offensive output will slow down in the later stages of the deal. With Tavares, that hasn't been the case.

On top of scoring a career-high 47 goals in his first season with the Maple Leafs, he's averaged 0.42 goals per game and a 0.96 points-per-game average over his 482 regular-season games with the Leafs and is in the midst of one of the best seasons of his career.

As he inches closer to the 500-goal total, it has quickly become a question of when, not if, Tavares will enter the Hockey Hall of Fame. His resume is bolstered by his success on the international stage, winning gold at the world juniors, the Olympics and the World Cup of Hockey.

Tavares' contract with the Maple Leafs should be looked back on as a pivotal moment for the organization that proved a lot of people wrong by aging incredibly well. While the demand of playoff success for the franchise may overshadow the long-term value and consistency he's brought, there's no denying that his accomplishments have left a mark on both the team and the league as a whole.

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