Best Leafs goals of 2024-25: John Tavares and his domination of the Washington Capitals

We’ve been taking a trip back to the 2024-25 season and having a look at some of the best goals the Toronto Maple Leafs scored during the season. Each piece so far has featured one goal, but John Tavares dominated against the Washington Capitals in 2024-25, scoring three goals and tallying one assist in four games against them. Sometimes you can’t pick just one, so we’ll go with three of the prettier goals he contributed to last season.

To kick off this edition, we’re going to go back to November 13, when Tavares set up Bobby McMann with a beautiful assist. The John Tavares of last season took a significant step forward from what was a bit of a down year for him the previous season (65 points, to be clear). He rebounded with 38 goals in 2024-25 and while he didn’t score this goal, his puck protection and work ethic to create space for himself was vintage John Tavares.

What started as a pretty routine 2-on-2 turned into Capitals defenceman Matt Roy getting his ankles broken as Tavares dipsy-doodled his way through his feet and eventually shoveled the puck out in front to McMann. Former Leafs defenceman Rasmus Sandin ducked down and unsuccessfully tried to block the pass, leaving McMann alone in front as he swept the puck through Logan Thompson’s legs for the equalizer.

Later that game, Tavares scored the overtime winner.

A month later, this time on home ice, defenceman Chris Tanev fed Tavares with a beautiful breakout pass to send him on a breakaway, where he juked Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren out of his skates to tie the game at 1.

Tanev is far from a stalwart offensively, but he does have an incredibly clean stretch pass as seen in this highlight. When you give somebody like Tavares that much time and space, you can consider yourself lucky if the puck isn’t in the back of your own net when all is said and done. The Capitals were not so lucky.

Fresh off of signing a four-year contract extension worth $4.38 million annually, Tavares has further endeared himself to the Toronto market with such a hefty hometown discount, and he’ll look to come close to replicating his success from last season in 2025-26.