Back in the day, before John Tavares became captain serious, he used to let his hair down and let loose as a 19, 20-year-old in the NHL. The number one overall pick from the 2009 NHL Entry Draft joined a New York Islanders team down in their dumps and carrying a lot of veterans. One of those vets was Doug Weight, who took Tavares into his home as a rookie, and apparently a young Tavares returned the favour by crashing Weight's Range Rover into a tree.
As Tavares approaches the all-encompassing 1,000 point mark - where he'll join the likes of Weight and company - the current senior advisor of the San Jose Sharks sat down with Mark Masters to discuss Tavares' career up to this point and what he was like as youngster.
"He didn't get out of the driveway, it was a rough one, and it's not a small driveway. He came in innocent and went "Dougie, sorry, I ran into the tree" and I'm like what tree? How can you hit a tree? Rough beginning but he's just a good kid and so happy he's doing the same thing with Knies."
4 points away from the illustrious 1,000 points mark, Tavares will be aiming for that plateau within the next few games. He has 434 goals and 996 points in 1,051 games through 15 seasons split between New York and Toronto.
