John Tavares said the Maple Leafs went completely off track and nobody is asking what he meant

John Tavares admitted this past season fell off the rails but instead of explaining why, he's giving fans concerns that Gavin McKenna is walking into a bad situation.

Toronto is likely going to select Gavin McKenna and having someone like John Tavares mentor him is a rare opportunity for both sides to benefit. However Tavares just admitted the team has issues that he still feels may be affecting them, and it's caused a debate over whether or not McKenna is walking into a place that won't be improving regardless of their roster moves.

Right now Tavares is trying to help Canada win the IIHF World Championships alongside Morgan Rielly and the rest of the Canadian roster. They seem like they're in good shape though did suffer a little scare courtesy of Maple Leafs prospect Tinus Luc Koblar and Norway, barely escaping 6-5.

But Tavares has been rock solid as per usual during this tournament, and knows that a strong performance here will likely translate into a strong training camp and preseason. He has three points and a plus-2 so far, and though he's not blowing everyone away; it's his steadiness keeping him afloat.

The buried quote from Tavares changes what the McKenna mentorship story actually means

He was asked about how he felt going into this season and what the opportunity to play with Gavin McKenna would be like and while excited, it was how he explained what this past season was that is a head scratcher. Tavares mentioned how things went off the rails but stopped short of exactly why that happened:

Obviously it was an incredibly disappointing year, and on a lot of fronts. Things just got completely off track for us. It was disappointing, the way the whole year went.

More than anything, I just love to play. As you get older, you appreciate every chance that you have to keep playing the game. So, yeah, it was a very disappointing season for us back in Toronto.

He wasn't going to mince words, but that's a really rough teardown of the team from its former captain. But that doesn't bode well for the new face of the franchise coming in. He's going to have help but it feels like it's as much helping him navigate the fact he's in Toronto at all and not just how to be an NHL player in general.

Tavares doesn't necessarily try and hide or play fast and loose with his words, he's as honest as can be. But stopping short of saying the team wasn't good enough, defensive enough, or united enough; you can read between the lines.

McKenna is not inheriting a solved problem and Tavares is the proof

Though it could also just be a case of genuine bewilderment from Tavares because he genuinely doesn't know how it could have went wrong. Sure they had injuries but so does everyone, and the staunch goaltending and defence that carried them in 2024-25 was non-existent in 2025-26 with basically the same group.

But you can see it with his appreciation comments, he knows that time isn't on his side. If the team can't get things together with the same roster as a year ago, what happened to the passion and consistency over a year? Why did things implode so quickly? We won't ever know.

Though that also means that McKenna is not coming in with a fresh start, as there's still a lot of issues with the lineup that will cause the same issues as this past season. He could inherit a team that fails him at every regard and doesn't protect him - just ask Auston Matthews how that feels.

Tavares has been with the team through the best and worst times since he signed back in 2017, and when he's confused as to what the heck went wrong then you're starting to run into some serious issues.

One of the smartest, most prepared players in the history of the game just had no idea why Toronto failed. If he doesn't know, then it's hard to imagine anyone else who does. And that's bad news for a rookie like Gavin McKenna who already has immense pressure before his name is even called.

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