john-tavares

He’s living the dream of many kids his age, but for John Tavares, it’s probably starting to feel like “same old, same old.” Still only 18, Tavares is about to complete his 4th full season in the OHL – a league he has dominated since being drafted 1st overall by the Oshawa Generals a couple months shy of his 15th birthday. In all other cases to this point, the OHL would not allow anyone under the age of 16 to play. Tavares’ situation forced their hand and a new precedent was set. They had to change the rules (ever so slightly), letting him in under a new “exceptional player” clause. Nearly four years later, there’s no doubt Tavares was worth changing the rules for. His rookie season, he scored 45 goals and registered 77 points in 65 games. The next year, he broke Wayne Gretzky’s OHL record for most goals in a season with 72. Say what you want about puckheads in the Canadian media going overboard with stories about the next phenom coming up through the system, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. Tavares was worth the hype.

Now, with his draft year for the NHL finally upon us, here’s a concern many people have about JT: top prospects never spend as much time as he did in junior hockey. They get in at 16, play for two seasons before they’re drafted by an NHL team, and then they usually use their last year of junior eligibility before moving on to the AHL or straight to “the show.” That’s three years max. Tavares, in his 4th, must feel like he’s been in a holding pattern for some time now. I’m sure he hasn’t been getting any worse playing more games in junior (case in point: his performance at the World Juniors), but how much better is he getting? And how much better could he be getting if he were playing in a higher-up league this season… say, in the AHL? This option has never been available for “exceptional” players who have nothing left to prove at the junior level, but since the rules were already stretched once with Tavares, why couldn’t another exception be made? John Ferguson Jr. was thinking along these lines when he took a shot in the dark and tried to get Tavares to play for the Marlies this season (JFJ’s attempt to “think outside the box” went nowhere). This idea should be taken more seriously the next time a player of this caliber comes around.

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