To know what brought this moment into existence, and what brought this player into ascension, let us go back to a living room in Oakville, Ontario.
It’s 1995, and a 5-year-old John Tavares puts on a tape of Wayne Gretzky highlights, watching from start to finish for almost an hour. It’s over, he rewinds, and he plays it again.
Tavares’ mother, Barb, takes her young son across the border to Buffalo, where her brother-in-law, also named John Tavares, is playing indoor lacrosse for the Buffalo Bandits. Little Johnny sat rapt, not getting up to run around, not interested in ice cream.