If, as expected, he is taken with the first pick of the NHL draft on Friday in Montreal, John Tavares will have the weight of Long Island on him.
The New York Islanders are a franchise coming out of two of the toughest seasons in their history and they need a face – a real star in the making – to be the answer towards finally helping them out of what has been a very dark hockey basement.
But are the expectations of the junior star, probably the biggest name to come into the sport since Sidney Crosby, too high assuming he beats off late competition from Victor Hedman and Matt Duchene to become the No 1 pick.
Although Tavares has put up gaudy numbers on his way to finally entering the draft (a year later than he wanted to) and managed to draw quite ludicrous comparisons to Wayne Gretzky, the transition to the professional ranks is going to be tough, most likely on a team that has forgotten how to win.
The Islanders won just 26 of their 82 regular season games last season, a decrease of nine on 2008 when things looked bleak enough, and although the arrival of Garth Snow as general manager seems to have made things at the Nassau Coliseum a little more professional, this turnaround is not going to be an overnight occurrence.
Tavares scored more goals in his time in the OHL than any player in history, and his experience coming into the bigs will be an advantage when it comes to placing a hockey bet – remember he is older than most players in the draft and was only five days too young to have been drafted in 2008.
The Islanders roster has little to recommend it at the moment, although Kyle Okposo and Josh Bailey are names Tavares will hopefully be looking to team up with in time.
But without some serious surgery, or Snow making some extraordinarily one-sided trades, Tavares will need to knuckle down for a couple of seasons and take his licks as a pro before any chance of lasting success.
Of course, that’s not saying he won’t put up numbers because someone on the team has to score, but with Okposo topping the goal charts with 18 last season as a rookie, it might not be too big of a hockey betting gamble to see Tavares repeat the dose in 2009 as long as he gets a little bit of help from the journeymen that litter the rest of the roster.
Good luck John – you might need it!
