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TORONTO — If Chris Tanev earned a nickname this season, it may well be “vintage.”
The 35-year-old defenseman is popping again the clock on Toronto’s blue line, with a exhibit of bodily sacrifice within the identify of crew luck. The effects aren’t just a few of his superb ever, however he has helped raise the Leafs the place they want it maximum. That’s a tall order from one participant — except you might be Tanev, the rising crown jewel in Toronto’s protection who’s even charming the contest.
“He’s kind of like the head of the snake back there on their back end,” stated Matthew Tkachuk, who spent two seasons as Tanev’s teammate in Calgary. “I’ve always said how great a player he’s been for years. But to see him at this stage, and continuing to do it year after year, it’s incredible. You can tell just by the way he conducts himself and talks to [his] team and blocks shots and leads by example … I’ve seen it. It’s no surprise to see what he’s doing now.”
Tanev’s tenacity may well be no nice surprise, however even Tkachuk could not have predicted how Tanev has helped flip the Leafs right into a two-headed monster — one no longer handiest able to scoring many targets, however surroundings a forged defensive tone, too.
To put it charitably, objective suppression hasn’t been Toronto’s area of expertise during the last decade.
It’s on complete show now all through the Leafs’ postseason run, and Tanev has became his personal play up a notch additional in Toronto’s second-round sequence in opposition to the Florida Panthers.
According to Stathletes, Tanev has absorbed extra hits (81) within the playoffs than any skater, and he is moment in blocked photographs (25). He’s additionally the Leafs’ postseason chief in plus-minus (+5) and was once tops in that class all over the common season too (+31) when he and Jake McCabe produced a plus-11 objective differential at 5-on-5.
If all the ones physically beatings have taken a toll on Tanev, you’ll by no means realize it from the smile — revealing an opening from some enamel dislodged alongside the best way — etched completely on his face.
“Every day is a great day,” he stated, when requested how he is feeling. “You wake up and you’re happy and you come to the rink.”
That sunny disposition is every other Tanev hallmark, one who works in tandem together with his ferocious on-ice angle. There’s a complexity to the veteran’s persona — he is identified to be unassuming, a silent observer who is quietly humorous. Tanev does not courtroom the highlight, but it surely has discovered him in those playoffs the place a commanding particular person efficiency has propelled Toronto all over its maximum promising playoff run in years. Attention was once certain to practice.
“He’s a guy who goes out and gives it his all every single game,” Maple Leafs ahead Mitch Marner stated. “It’s something you really love to have on your team. He puts his body on the line every single shift as well. I think that’s why we’re having so much success is because of him.”
WHEN IT COMES to playoff hockey, you have to “play each night like you’re willing to die on that ice,” in step with veteran Leafs ahead Max Pacioretty.
That’s Tanev’s taste year-round. And the Leafs have wanted a participant like him on protection for too lengthy.
Toronto normal supervisor Brad Treliving knew Tanev can be a difference-maker from his time because the Flames’ GM all over Tanev’s four-year tenure with the crew. He anchored Calgary’s again finish appropriate up till Treliving’s successor in Calgary, Craig Conroy, traded him to Dallas in February 2024 because the Flames entered a rebuilding segment.
Tanev was once a pending unrestricted unfastened agent on the time, and a coveted right-shot defender like him would not remaining lengthy at the unfastened agent marketplace. Treliving sought after early get entry to to Tanev’s attainable services and products and purchased his rights from the Stars remaining June in change for a 2026 seventh-round draft pick out and prospect Max Ellis. The transfer gave Toronto an unique window to barter with Tanev towards a long-term deal, and through July 1 they’d come in combination on a six-year, $27 million contract.
The Toronto local was once formally coming domestic. And Tanev’s popularity as a grinder preceded him appropriate into the Leafs’ room. He was once then contemporary off Dallas’ run to a Western Conference finals look, a stretch the place Tanev led the playoff box in blocked photographs (73 in 19 video games) after completing fourth in that class all over the common season (207).
Craig Berube was once additionally new to the Leafs, approaching board for his first season as head trainer, and Berube’s north-south playstyle have compatibility in completely with Tanev’s take-no-prisoners standpoint.
“He’s an old school type of guy,” Berube stated. “He’s a warrior. He’s a competitive person. He’s right up there with all the ones that have been around, laying his body on the line every night, whether it’s a block, or taking a hit to make a play. You name it. He’s going to lay it on the line.”
That’s been painfully transparent within the Leafs’ sequence in opposition to Florida. Tanev has taken a beating from the Panthers in stride, even if it has harm. There was once the hit from at the back of through Brad Marchand in Game 4; Tanev merely popped again up like a kernel — identical to he did following a crushing hit in Game 2 (despite the fact that Tanev was once a bit of slower off the ice on that one). He was once additionally overwhelmed through Panthers ahead Carter Verhaeghe within the first duration of Friday’s Game 3 — however no longer ahead of he were given the puck to McCabe.
It was once handiest moments later that John Tavares scored to increase the Leafs’ lead in that one. Consider Tanev with a 3rd lend a hand there, from executing one of these game-changing transfer that may give the opposition suits.
“That’s the strength of him, is that he’ll hang onto the puck an awful lot to make plays,” Panthers trainer Paul Maurice stated. “And he makes plays. He’s probably underrated in some of his puck movement. He’s been doing that forever. He blocks shots, takes hits; keeps playing.”
Others might wince within the wake of Tanev’s fearlessness. The concept procedure is solely moment nature now regardless that.
“Sometimes you’re trying to draw guys in and sort of absorb a hit before you move [the puck],” he stated. “Probably there are some times where I can move it a little quicker, but that’s just playoff hockey and that’s what happens.”
Tanev is not one to bellyache both, whether or not he is feeling the burn or no longer. It’s an inspiring dedication that has rubbed off on Tanev’s teammates: If he is prepared to position his weight into each and every shift, then the crowd’s collective defensive effort needs to be there, too.
“You see some plays and you think after the game he’s going to be complaining about it, and you don’t hear a word from him about it,” Pacioretty stated. “He just goes about his business. And that was throughout the entire year. You see a shot block earlier in the year, and you’re like, ‘Oh, man, you must be hurting or limping for days’ and he just comes back to the rink like nothing happened.
“So he is extraordinarily tricky, and he is prepared to sacrifice the whole thing for the crew, and that does not move omitted in that room.”
By just how much, exactly?
“He’s up there [as toughest teammate],” defenseman Simon Benoit stated. “He’s were given to be up there, like, most sensible one.”
TANEV HAS MANY TALENTS on the ice.
He’s got a few off it, too. And, like plenty else about him, learning how Tanev spends his downtime was an eye-opener.
“I discovered he is doing schoolwork at the street so much, which I believe is loopy,” Marner said. “But he is devoted to operating exhausting, and the rest he begins he needs to complete and that is the reason one thing you admire. It’s spectacular.”
Tanev didn’t exactly plan on textbooks filling his suitcase as an NHL player. Then again, he didn’t see a global pandemic coming, either. But when the league shut down in 2020, Tanev decided to make the most of it, picking up on the finance degree he started as a player at Rochester Institute of Technology in 2009.
“I went to university for a yr and left and took a ten-year destroy,” Tanev joked. “When COVID took place, my spouse was once like, ‘why do not you get started taking categories [again]?” We were just sitting at home. And I’ve been doing it since. So I’m almost done.”
The trade aspect of lifestyles comes “naturally” to Tanev, one thing he hinted at when explaining why he sought after to signal with Toronto within the first position. When requested on the time why he would wish to go away a spot like Texas, with its low state source of revenue tax, to be in Canada, the place taxes are particularly upper, Tanev had an informed solution.
“You do have the lower state tax [in Texas], but I’ve played in Canada for 14 years [between Vancouver and Calgary from 2010-14],” he stated. “I’m from [Toronto], and my wife’s family is from close to here. There’s also a tax when you leave Canada to become a U.S. citizen — there’s a departure tax to leave Canada.”
Avoiding that deemed depositions tax — accumulated when a Canadian completely relocates somewhere else — confirmed a glimpse into Tanev’s monetary savvy, and illustrated how, identical to when he is patrolling the Leafs’ blue line, he’s continuously looking to keep in entrance of the contest.
“He’s a stud back there,” ahead Matthew Knies stated. “I think he’s always watching. He’s thinking ahead, making the play and getting the puck out of his own zone, and blocking shots. That’s what it takes to win.”
It’s dull, nearly, to look at Tanev in motion. He’s so hardly out of place or inflicting cringe-worthy turnovers that experience poisoned playoff runs for Toronto previously. There’s a self-assurance to Tanev that radiates as a part of his persona.
“[He’s a] calming presence,” Marner stated. “If anyone knows him off the ice, he’s one-of-a-kind, he’s very calm and to himself. Every once in a while you’ll hear him make a joke, which is usually pretty funny.”
What is not any guffawing topic is how essential Tanev is to Toronto’s hope of denying the Panthers every other Cup Final look — and making an attempt to make certainly one of their very own. The Leafs held a 2-0 sequence lead over Florida ahead of the Panthers defended domestic ice with a couple of victories to drag even at 2-2. When the puck drops on Game 5 in Toronto, it is formally a best-of-three, regardless that the Leafs nonetheless have home-ice benefit to paintings with there.
To end the task, the Leafs will take the whole thing Tanev may give — however they may be able to’t have the funds for to lose him within the procedure, both. There was once a collective inhale when Tanev exited Game 3 for a number of shifts after a shot block; seems, it was once just a damaged skate.
“Frustrating,” in step with Tanev, to even omit a couple of mins at the moment of yr when his contributions are essential.
“He’s done this for a long time,” stated Berube, on Tanev’s refusal to shy clear of hurt. “So, I’m not going to talk to him about changing.”
Toronto would not dream of it. Tanev is main through instance on what it takes to really be all-in. If the remainder of Tanev’s teammates practice swimsuit, there is not any telling how some distance Toronto can take their postseason run.
“He’s as tough as they come,” McCabe stated of his spouse. “He’s so steady. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to win. We’re lucky to have him.”
