Concerns about Tavares’ development will be all for naught if he comes in next year and tears it up like Sidney Crosby did as a rookie. If he stumbles, however, you’ll start to hear some skepticism about how his situation was handled. Crosby didn’t play major junior hockey at 15. Instead, he spent a year at a private school in Minnesota renowned for developing young hockey talents. After two years in Rimouski, Crosby was definitely ready to move on to bigger and better things, but it never felt like he was wasting his time there. Obviously, the jump from junior hockey to the NHL is a massive one, even if you are an elite prospect. Tavares may suffer from his extensive time in the OHL if he’s too accustomed to playing against that level of competition. Undoubtedly an “exceptional player,” his key development years may have arrived sooner than other players his age, and if he wasn’t challenged enough during this time, will he reach his full potential at the NHL level? Only time will tell.
For Tavares, there’s no use dwelling on the past or wondering if a higher level of competition would make him better prepared for the jump to the pros. He’s now looking ahead to what should be a very bright future in the NHL. But this brings up another question – how does he feel about the probability of being drafted by the league’s most comical franchise, the New York Islanders? There hasn’t been any indication from Tavares or his agent that he might “pull a Lindros” and refuse to go to any specific team, but if you were in his shoes, what would you do? There may be other franchises in worse shape than the Islanders (Atlanta comes to mind), but they’ve got to have one of the most dysfunctional front offices in all of sports. Even without any inside knowledge of their situation, I feel safe saying that Mr. Wang and Co. have an ass-backwards way of doing things. Hey Charles, how’s that Rick DiPietro 15-year deal working out? We’re just two years in, and it’s already looking like a disaster with DiPietro playing just five games this season due to a lingering knee injury. As a result, the Isles are riding the tandem of Joey MacDonald (who…) and Yann Danis (…are you?) to a guaranteed last-place finish, primed to win the John Tavares sweepstakes. They might as well sign Yutaka Fukufuji for some help down the stretch.
If he does end up getting drafted by the sad-sack Isles, it’s doubtful Tavares would snub them. Who knows? … maybe he’ll develop some good chemistry with a few of their other prospects and turn the franchise around like Crosby did in Pittsburgh. Sometimes all it takes is one player to send a team in the right direction. On the other end of the spectrum, he’ll see Ilya Kovalchuk, buried in Atlanta with nothing more than some impressive personal stats to show for his seven seasons there. Tavares has got to be hoping he doesn’t end up in a dead-end situation like that, but with the way the Isles are going, it’s definitely a possibility. That being said, quick turnarounds do happen on Long Island. Just look at Garth Snow – it only took him one day to go from backup goalie to general manager! Yikes.
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If I were Johnny T, I would much rather end up on the Isle than ATL. The isles have some good prospects like Josh Baily, Okposo and Frans Nielsen
Our franchise will be just fine in two years, and good prospects take time to develope. He’d do well to be here on the Island. But then again, so would any other player Garth choses in the first round.