Tavares anxious for draft day
John Tavares has been thinking about this day for a very long time.
r
Like thousands of other Canadian kids that grew up playing the game of hockey, Tavares dreamed about playing in the National Hockey League. On Friday, the London Knights’ star will take another big step towards that goal.
r
Tavares is the top rated North American prospect for the NHL Entry Draft (7:00 p.m. Eastern on TSN) and is anxious to hear his name called.
r
“It’s always been my dream to play in the National Hockey League,” Tavares told NHL TV. “To soon be a part of an organization in the NHL is going to be a dream come true and a great honour. It will be amazing to have that feeling that this team thinks you could be part of a team that could win a Stanley Cup. It’s exciting.”
r
For Tavares, the dream started to take shape when his parents noticed how much he loved the game at an early age.
r
“My mom told me when I was young that she saw my passion for the game,” Tavares said. “We realized that I had a good opportunity in front of me. When I was young, two or three days a week wasn’t enough. It had to be six or seven days a week skating and playing because that’s all I wanted to do.”
r
It didn’t take long for his parents to realize that Tavares would have to play against older kids to be challenged on a regular basis.
r
“Playing with older kids, she saw that I had the ability,” Tavares said. “She saw that I was too mature for those guys so she moved me up and saw that I excelled. It was good that she realized that and saw those characteristics. It benefited me at the end of the day.”
r
Tavares was admitted into the Ontario Hockey League a year early after being granted exceptional player status by an independent panel that agreed that Tavares was mature enough to play Major Junior hockey against players as much as six years older than he was. Tavares proved them right by scoring 45 goals and 77 points in 65 games with the Oshawa Generals. He was named the Canadian Hockey League rookie of the year.
r
The following season, Tavares broke Wayne Gretzky’s OHL record for most goals by a 16-year-old when he scored 72 times and added 62 assists for 134 points. He was named the OHL and CHL player of the year and was already being touted as the top pick in the 2009 NHL Draft.
r
“I love to score,” Tavares said. “I just have that drive and I think there is no greater feeling than me putting that puck in the net. Wanting to be the very best at that made me want to work as hard as I could and get better at that each and every day.”
r
Tavares won the OHL scoring title again this season by scoring 58 goals and 104 points in 56 games despite missing time helping Canada win the gold medal at the World Junior Championships in Ottawa. Tavares also set a new league record with 215 career goals in four seasons but said that one of his biggest accomplishments this season was the improvement in his defensive play.
r
“When I was a kid all I wanted to do was score, score, score,” Tavares said. “I loved to score goals and it’s what I saw as me helping to win. As you get older and you mature you start to understand that there’s a lot more to the game of hockey than just producing offensively. It’s obviously still my strength and the thing I’m counted on for the most but I’ve learned to be more of a complete player and be good in all three zones.”
r
Tavares hopes that his movement towards becoming a complete player will pay off when the NHL draft kicks off on Friday. Tavares and Swedish defenceman Victor Hedman are considered the two players most likely to be selected first overall by the New York Islanders. If Tavares is selected first, he will be the third straight OHL player to hold that distinction.
r
“It’s exciting – no question,” Tavares said. “I want to enjoy it – enjoy the moment because it only comes along once.”
Photo of John Tavares by Aaron Bell/CHL