John Tavares (born September 4, 1968 in Toronto, Ontario) is a professional box lacrosse player in the National Lacrosse League and mathematics teacher at Philip Pocock Catholic Secondary School in Mississauga Ontario, Canada. He attended D'Youville College in Buffalo, NY

Tavares has played his entire career with the Buffalo Bandits since their inaugural season in 1992. He was acquired from the Detroit Turbos in exchange for Brian Nikula in October 1991. John is also the Professional Lacrosse Players' Association Representative for the Bandits.

Tavares is the uncle of ice hockey player John Tavares, a forward with the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League who has won the CHL Rookie of the Year Award and the OHL Rookie of the Year for the 2005-06 OHL season. He is of Portuguese descent.^{[1] [2]}

Contents 1 Records, Accolades, Accomplishments 1.1 NLL Points Records 1.2 NLL Career Milestone Points 2 OLA/WLA Career 3 Statistics 3.1 NLL 3.2 OLA/WLA/MLS Statistics 4 Awards 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Records, Accolades, Accomplishments

(Through the 2007 season)

• Games Played, Buffalo Bandits: 194
• Career Assists, NLL: 648
• Career Points, NLL: 1239
• Tavares is the first player in NLL history to have 500 goals and 500 assists.

NLL Weekly and Monthly Awards (through 2007 season):

• Player of the Week (1994-2001) 8 times
• Overall Player of the Week (2002-) 11 times
• Offensive Player of the Week (2002-) 9 times
• Player of the Month 9 times

[edit] NLL Points Records

On Saturday February 18, 2006, the Buffalo Bandits defeated the Minnesota Swarm by a score of 14-9 in front of 12,458 fans at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York. In that game, John Tavares tied the NLL Career Points (goals + assists) record at 1,091 points held by Gary Gait, who had retired after the 2005 season.^[3]

On Saturday March 4, 2006, 10,961 fans witnessed history. On that night, the Buffalo Bandits played their 7th regular season game again hosting the Minnesota Swarm, and John Tavares scored two points in an 11-8 loss. The first was his 1,092nd career point, the record-breaker, which was an assist to Mark Steenhuis who scored a power-play goal at 11:57 in the second period. (The second point, Point 1,093, was also an assist to Steenhuis in the third period.) Play was stopped, and Tavares was given the game ball.^[4][5][6]

[edit] NLL Career Milestone Points

• No. 1: Jan. 4, 1992, assist to Rich Kilgour vs. New York in first game.
• 100: March 20, 1993, goal vs. Detroit's Paul Mootz in 16th game.
• 200: Jan. 20, 1996, goal vs. Baltimore's J.J. Pearl in 34th game.
• 300: Feb. 7, 1997, assist to Darris Kilgour vs. Baltimore in 46th game.
• 400: Jan. 8, 1999, goal vs. Philadelphia's Dallas Eliuk in 62nd game.
• 500: Feb. 18, 2000, goal vs. Rochester's Pat O'Toole in 78th game.
• 600: Feb. 10, 2001, goal vs. Washington's Devin Dalep in 91st game.
• 700: Feb. 1, 2002, assist to Chris Driscoll vs. Montreal in 107th game.
• 800: Feb. 8, 2003, assist to Mike Accursi vs. Toronto in 122nd game.
• 900: Feb. 14, 2004, goal vs. Anaheim's Matt Disher in 139th game.
• 1,000: Feb. 19, 2005, assist to Delby Powless vs. Rochester in 154th game.
• 1,091: Feb. 18, 2006, assist to Cory Bomberry vs. Minnesota in 169th game. (Ties Gary Gait's then-existing NLL Career Points Record)
• 1,092: March 4, 2006, assist to Mark Steenhuis vs. Minnesota in 170th game. (New NLL Career Points Record)

[edit] OLA/WLA Career

Tavares is a six-time member of a Mann Cup champion team, winning in 1992 and 1993 with the Brampton Excelsiors, 1994 through 1996 with the Six Nations Chiefs (both of the Major Series Lacrosse), and in 2002 with the Victoria Shamrocks of the Western Lacrosse Association. He is a three-time winner, in 1992, 1993, and 1996, of the Mike Kelly Memorial Trophy as most valuable player in the Mann Cup competition.^[7] Tavares also won the Major Series Lacrosse scoring title eight times, and the MSL's Most Valuable Player award three times.^[8]

[edit] Statistics

[edit] NLL

			Regular Season							Playoffs
Season	Team		GP	G	A	Pts	LB	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	LB	PIM
1992	Buffalo		8	21	22	43	66	26		3	12	12	24	29	8
1993	Buffalo		8	35	23	58	93	28		2	4	3	7	6	2
1994	Buffalo		8	27	20	47	74	14		2	6	8	14	19	9
1995	Buffalo		8	24	21	45	66	21		1	2	1	3	6	0
1996	Buffalo		10	41	40	81	102	4		2	4	7	11	20	2
1997	Buffalo		10	37	29	66	104	18		2	7	9	16	30	0
1998	Buffalo		9	31	25	56	80	8		1	2	5	7	9	0
1999	Buffalo		12	33	34	67	112	35		--	--	--	--	--	--
2000	Buffalo		12	34	49	83	123	10		1	2	1	3	18	0
2001	Buffalo		14	51	64	115	159	14		--	--	--	--	--	--
2002	Buffalo		16	42	46	88	145	12		--	--	--	--	--	--
2003	Buffalo		16	49	58	107	155	25		2	5	8	13	16	0
2004	Buffalo		16	49	44	93	118	25		3	7	13	20	21	4
2005	Buffalo		16	43	59	102	126	9		1	2	3	5	9	0
2006	Buffalo		16	32	53	85	95	12		3	7	4	11	13	0
2007	Buffalo		15	42	61	103	77	6		2	5	5	10	12	2
Totals			194	591	648	1239	1695	267		25	65	79	144	208	27

[edit] OLA/WLA/MLS Statistics

				Regular Season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1987	Bay Area Bengals	OLA Jr A		1	3	2	5	0		0	0	0	0	0
1988	Mississauga Tomahawks	OLA Jr A		23	77	72	149	36		0	0	0	0	0
1989	Mississauga Tomahawks	OLA Jr A		24	70	61	131	35		0	0	0	0	0
1989	Orangeville Northmen	MLS		1	2	2	4	0		0	0	0	0	0
1990	Vancouver Burrards	WLA		16	32	28	60	30		15	20	23	43	35
1991	Vancouver Burrards	WLA		24	46	48	94	80		4	5	6	11	14
1992	Brampton Excelsiors	MLS		16	44	46	90	47		13	30	26	56	25
1993	Brampton Excelsiors	MLS		16	53	40	93	39		13	34	29	63	22
1994	Six Nations Chiefs	MLS		13	44	45	89	42		18	42	46	88	32
1995	Six Nations Chiefs	MLS		20	55	53	108	50		14	31	36	67	20
1996	Six Nations Chiefs	MLS		24	69	71	140	45		14	39	24	63	38
1997	Six Nations Chiefs	MLS		20	46	57	103	27		4	9	5	14	8
1998	Akwesasne Thunder	MLS		16	33	48	81	27		0	0	0	0	0
1999	Akwesasne Thunder	MLS		18	36	43	79	25		16	26	29	55	28
2000	Akwesasne Thunder	MLS		16	45	66	111	45		0	0	0	0	0
2001	Akwesasne Thunder	MLS		14	26	52	78	10		0	0	0	0	0
2001	Victoria Shamrocks	WLA		8	20	32	52	6		11	25	27	52	13
2002	Victoria Shamrocks	WLA		7	9	23	32	15		17	34	39	73	6
2003	Victoria Shamrocks	WLA		8	14	22	36	11		14	27	26	53	21
2004	Akwesasne Thunder	MLS		18	38	51	89	7		3	5	4	9	0
2005	Akwesasne Thunder	MLS		17	31	55	86	8		3	7	0	7	4
2006	St.Regis Indians	MLS		13	16	40	56	11		3	2	7	9	0
2007	St.Regis Indians	MLS		9	9	19	28	2		0	0	0	0	0
JUNIOR A TOTALS				48	150	135	285	71		0	0	0	0	0
PRO/MAJOR/SENIOR TOTALS				294	668	841	1509	527		162	336	327	663	266

[edit] Awards

Preceded by Gary Gait	NLL MVP 2000, 2001	Succeeded by Paul Gait
Preceded by none	NLL MVP 1994	Succeeded by Gary Gait

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• John Tavares Countdown to History
• Historical Performances
• Professional Lacrosse Players Association John Tavares Interview (from 1999)

Persondata
NAME	Tavares, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Lacrosse player
DATE OF BIRTH	September 4, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH	Toronto, Ontario
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH