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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, Ju ly 5, 20 18 | 20 Mattress event! Canada day MISSISSAUGA 2150 Burnhamthorpe Rd • 905.542.0481 MILTON 238 Main Street, East • 905.878.4606 GUeLph 219 Silvercreek Pkwy • 519.823.1360 SEALY SPRINGFREE John Tavares left the vagabond semi-obscurity of the New York Islanders last Sunday to sign a sev- en-year, $77-million (U.S.) deal to play in Toronto. Star players almost never leave on their own in the NHL and Toronto boys al- most never come home. Ta- vares, 27, did both. "You get so connected and your roots get so deep in one place where I'd been, on Long Island," said Tavares. "You go in there as a 19-year-old and it be- comes a part of you, such a big part of your life, that it was really going to take something special, I felt like, to pull me out." He found something that did. Tavares was an Oakville child prodigy, the product of second-genera- tion immigrants from Po- land and Portugal. He was a No. 1 pick and was fifth in the league in goal scoring since entering the league in 2009. "I think for me the key was, we had to make this about hockey," said Leafs general manager Kyle Du- bas. "Not about anything else." It's better now. Tavares gives the Leafs three of the eight centres in the league who have scored at least 60 goals over the past two sea- sons. "As a kid cheering for the Leafs growing up ... you start to go through that feeling again, once I went through the inter- view process," said Ta- vares. "And it was an op- portunity. It was once in a lifetime, I felt like. And I'm just like, why don't you just go out there and grab it, take your best shot at it and enjoy it?" The Leafs could have sold hometown nostalgia. Leafs president Brendan Shanahan grew up in Etob- icoke, played lacrosse over a high school summer with Tavares's legendary uncle by the same name, and Shanahan's older brother Brian won five Mann Cups with that John Tavares. But that emotional pull wasn't the focus. He says some of his earliest memo- ries are Leafs memories, watching on the couch with his dad. He still ago- nized over this and when he announced it he tweet- ed out, "not everyday you can live your childhood dreams," with a picture of himself as a child, asleep in Leafs sheets. The wooden man opened up. "I would say the last sev- en days (were that)," said Tavares. "Some heavy feel- ings, some heavy emo- tions." HOCKEY Tavares seizes 'once in a lifetime' chance with Leafs BRUCE ARTHUR barthur@thestar.ca