Leafs star Tavares playing the fewest minutes of his career
When John Tavares signed a seven-year megadeal with the Toronto Maple Leafs six years ago, he was advertised as a workmanlike NHL superstar.
While his game — nor his personality — wasn’t always known for being the flashiest, the Ontario native came to his hometown Leafs with a resume that stacked up among the game’s top stars.
But one of the biggest caveats to Tavares’ deal when it was signed, as with any long-term contract, is the concern about how the latter years of the contract might age, with Tavares earning $11 million per season in a deal that expires after this year.
At age 34, we might finally be seeing those signs of decline, even if Tavares has put up two goals and two assists in six games so far.
Through six games, Tavares has suited up for just 16:41 of average ice time per game, compared to 17:52 a year ago, or 17:39 in 2022-23. While a minute or two might not seem like a lot, it’s actually by far the lowest average ice time of his 16-year career.
He played 18:48 on the opening night of the season but has yet to touch 18 minutes in a single game since, a mark he hit in 34 of his 80 games a season ago.
Perhaps it’s a bit of scaling back from new coach Craig Berube to protect Tavares against a long season, and he’ll ramp him up for the playoffs. Or perhaps it’s just Tavares being a little winded due to an illness that caused him to miss last week’s contest against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“Starting to get back in the swing of things,” Tavares told reporters earlier this week. “It was a real difficult illness I had there for a few days. I need to get back into the rhythm that I built up in training camp, looking forward to recoup here.”
In any case, it will be interesting to see if Tavares’ dip in minutes is a temporary one, or if it’ll be more of the same as what to expect over his remaining time with the Leafs.
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