Tavares leading push to get NHL players back on the ice

Like most of us John Tavares isn’t sure when the NHL will return. But unlike most of us, Tavares isn’t sitting around just waiting for it to happen. The Toronto Maple Leafs’ captain has stepped into a new role with a joint NHL-NHLPA committee whose mandate is to get the league back on the ice as soon as possible. As captain of the NHL’s “Return to Play Committee” Tavares is bringing his leadership skills to the league at wide.

Tavares recently caught up with NHL insider Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic to discuss his new role and what it’s like working with fellow committee members Connor McDavid, James van Riemsdyk, Ron Hainsey and Mark Schiefele.  

Read below for some quotes from LeBrun’s column:

“I was asked to be a part of it and I’m obviously happy to help and communicate with as many guys as I can and get a general feeling on what we feel is going to be best, collectively, going forward coming out of this, how best to deal with this situation,” Tavares said over the phone on Monday. “Obviously, timing is very important from a health and safety standpoint to proper preparation and then how to play with integrity and fairness to award the Stanley Cup. All that is part of this and I’m just happy to be part of it.’’

“I think it’s great,” Tavares said. “We ask questions from our side, and they ask questions from their side. Just all trying to get on the same page and get a good understanding of once things do get to a point where the time is right to progress and potentially preparing to play, what’s going to be needed?”

“In hockey, as much as you can train and get stronger and work on a lot of things off the ice, there’s really nothing that can really truly mimic the type of stress skating has,” Tavares said. “So I think that’s been a big talking point and I think they wanted to get a good sense of that. And for us, just what are they looking at from a scheduling standpoint and how they’re kind of managing all this, how they see this unfolding if things turn the corner and there’s approval from health officials and people in government, people in those positions who give the green light, just trying to get a whole understanding so we can just be as best prepared. So if there’s an opportunity, or when the opportunity is there to get things rolling, that we’re ready and everyone’s on the same page and feels good about re-starting and getting back into it.’’

“So, it’s hard to get into exact timing,” Tavares said of a three-week training camp. “That’s what we discussed is having an understanding that if certain variables present themselves, how we can address them. This is also about being prepared. Because things are changing, as we see, daily and weekly; so just being able to adapt about how much time we’re going to have, how much time we’re going to need.”

For the full article from LeBrun, click below: