Thrown into the fire without the luxury of AHL development, John Tavares learned "on the fly" in his rookie year with the New York Islanders. In his upcoming sophomore season, he has the ability to follow the path of Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos whose numbers rose dramatically after a year of NHL experience under his belt.
Tavares' 54 points were only one shy of leading rookie point-getter Matt Duchene who played alongside vastly talented teammates in Colorado. Duchene and the Avalanche were playoff bound while Tavares' paltry Islanders hovered around the bottom of the Eastern Conference most of last season.
Stamkos struggled mightily in his inaugural NHL campaign before compiling a tremendous 95 point season which included a whopping 51 goals, an impressive 24 coming on the power play.
As a fellow first overall draft pick, Tavares endured similar criticism to Stamkos but all signs point to him enjoying great success in 2010-11. His play for Canada in the 2010 World Championships was outstanding as he scored 7 goals in seven games.
You can point to the fact that Tavares isn't surrounded by immense teammates like Stam ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Sean Hartnett
New York Islanders’ John Tavares Poised For Breakout Sophomore Year
October 4th, 2010 by Sean Hartnett Leave a reply »
Advertisement