Interesting debate arises over who was the most under-appreciated Maple Leaf
Both Phil Kessel and John Tavares have had their Maple Leaf tenures mired by playoff failures, and now they're being directly compared in a recent contentious debate: who has been the more under-appreciated star?
When the Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Kessel from the Boston Bruins in the fall of 2009, then general manager Brian Burke was looking to turnaround the organization's fortunes as they had missed the post-season in the previous 4 years.
Kessel played for the Leafs between 2009-10 to 2014-15 and finished with 181 goals and 394 points in 440 games played. In his first season with the club, Kessel finished first in goals and points with 30 and 55, respectively in 70 games. Second on the team was Tomas Kaberle with 49 points and Alexei Ponikarovsky and Matt Stajan were tied for third with 41 points.
That was just the beginning for Kessel who was forced to lead an offense that didn't have another star to support him. The following year he scored 32 goals and 64 points and was aided by Clarke MacArthur's 62 and Mikhail Grabovski's 58 points. In 2011-12, Kessel led the way again with 37 goals and 82 points and his running mates were Joffery Lupul (67 points) and Grabovski (51 points).
In the lockout-shortened season of 2012-13, Kessel finished with 20 goals and 52 points in just 48 games and following him was Nazem Kadri with 44 points and James van Riemsdyk with 32 points. It was an almost identical season in 2013-14 with Kessel at the top (80 points) followed by van Riemsdyk (61 points) and Kadri (50 points). Finally in his last season with the club, he finished with 25 goals and 61 points with van Riemsdyk being the only other team with 25+ goals and 50+ points.
On the flip side of things Tavares has been afforded some of the best teams in franchise history - or at least modern history. Tavares was brought in with Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander already in place. So in terms of teammates, star talent, and overall team play in general, Tavares had the better platform than Kessel, however he has performed admirably despite some of the disdain thrown his way.
Tavares is entering the final year of his 7-year deal with the Leafs and walks into the 2024-25 season with 184 goals and 419 points in 440 games played. He started off with a bang when he scored a career-high 47 goals and 88 points in 2018-19. The closest he came to repeating that same level of success came in 2022-23 when he finished the year with 36 goals and 80 points but his 2019-20 season was interrupted by COVID-19 and 2020-21 was shortened due to the pandemic.
In 2023-24, Tavares might have had the worst statistical season of his career as he scored 29 goals and 65 points in 80 games. The last time he tallied that few goals and points in a full season, you would have to go all the way back to 2016-17 when he tallied 28 goals and 66 points in 77 games for the New York Islanders - and before that would be his rookie campaign in 2009-10.
The 33-year-old still has some juice left but he has come off consecutive seasons of ATOIs of just 17:39 and 17:52. Still, if 29 goals and 65 points is a down year, you'd have to imagine he is going to come into 2024-25 with a chip on his shoulder, not just as a captain but because it's a contract year as well.
Where things tend to differ comes in the post-season, where Tavares has 12 goals and 24 points in 38 games in 6 years with 5 first round exits. Kessel only made the post-season once with the Leafs and tallied 4 goals and 6 points in 7 games but that had more to do with the team around him than his individual play.
When it comes down to it, it's going to be tough to pick one over the other but on the surface and when you dive into their performances, Kessel might have a leg up on being the more under-appreciated and under-valued star in the city of Toronto in the modern era.
Source for Phil Kessel statistics: Hockey-Reference
Phil Kessel
Source for John Tavares statistics: Hockey-Reference
John Tavares
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 12 | 513 ANSWERS Interesting debate arises over who was the most under-appreciated Maple Leaf Who was the more under-appreciated star in Toronto? | ||
| Phil Kessel | 314 | 61.2 % |
| John Tavares | 199 | 38.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
