One parallel is Alexei Yashin. Similar draft pedigree (2nd vs. 1st).
He finished 2nd in Hart trophy voting in 1999, and led his team in regular season scoring six out of the seven seasons he was with the Senators. Much like Tavares, he had to do a lot of the heavy lifting offensively:
- In 1993-1994, he finished ahead of the 2nd place player (Alexandre Daigle) by 18 points (79 to 51).
- In 1997-1998, he finished ahead of the 2nd place player (Shawn McEachern) by 24 points (72 to 48).
- The following year, in 1998-1999, he finished ahead of the 2nd place player (Shawn McEachern again) by 38 points (94 to 56).
He was traded to another team (ironically, also the Islanders) to serve as the Captain and key centre but never really lived up to his billing or the massive contract that he was given. (10 years at $87.5 million, which was later rolled back)
Tavares has already exceeded Yashin's GP at the NHL level, but in terms of per game production (where Yashin played pretty much entirely in the DPE):
- GPG - 0.40 (Yashin) vs. 0.41 (Tavares)
- APG - 0.52 (Yashin) vs. 0.53 (Tavares)
- PPG - 0.92 (Yashin) vs. 0.94 (Tavares)
One discrepancy is around playoff production, where Tavares has the upper hand (0.80 PPG) to (0.56 PPG).
However, of the 8 times that Tavares did play in the playoffs, he was on a winning team twice, much as Yashin played in 8 playoffs and only won a series once.