Tavares to join Team Canada at 2024 IIHF Men’s World Championship

It is a surprising move in a way, as it has been a long time since Tavares has represented his country during international competition. He last appeared at the World Championships in 2012, the last of a three-year run of playing for Team Canada at the tournament. Tavares last played for Team Canada in 2016, when he was part of a dominant lineup that won the World Cup of Hockey.

Tavares is able to play at Worlds because the Toronto Maple Leafs were recently eliminated by the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Playoffs–again. The 33-year-old scored a goal and an assist in the seven-game, first-round series. Tavares scored 29 goals and 65 points in 80 games this past regular season.

In his younger days, Tavares had an illustrious record with Team Canada. He was on the gold-medal-winning teams at the 2008 and 2009 IIHF World Junior Championships, as well as playing for Canada at the 2006 IIHF Men’s Under-18 World Championship, three years before the New York Islanders would take him with the first overall pick in the 2009 NHL Draft.

The 2007 CHL Player of the Year was on the Canadian team that went to Sochi in 2014, where the country won the gold medal in the last Olympics in which NHLers participated. Tavares also played for Canada during the 2012-13 lockout, where he helped his country win the Spengler Cup.

Canada begins Group A play in Prague on Saturday against Great Britain.