Willy C. Collection

this is the extremely rare set of Tavares hockey cards Willy C. Collection started with... ten cards commemorating the amazing Record Breaking Season John Tavares had in 2006-07

 

as a 16 year old playing for the Oshawa Generals... these are some of the earliest cards John Tavares signed as a young emerging Hockey Superstar

 

there are ten different autographed cards numbered 1 of 9 and each card also has a 1 of 1 Gold version

 

below are six of the ten 1 of 1 Gold version cards

 

the 2018-19 season saw John Tavares play all 82 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs and he finished third in the league with a career high 47 goals... the 2019-20 season started with Tavares being named the 25th captain in franchise history

 

the 2019-20 NHL season was like no other with Covid bringing the regular season to an end at 70 games. The Leafs finished 36-25-9 and lost game 5 to the Columbus Blue Jackets of the qualifying round to miss the playoffs

 

the 2020-21 regular season was reduced to 56 games because of Covid and the Canadian teams only played against each other in the North Division. Toronto won the division with a 35-14-7 record and finished 6th overall in the NHL... Auston Matthews won the Rocket Richard Trophy with a league best 41 goals

 

the 2021 playoffs would see Toronto vs Montreal for the first time in forty years… however, Toronto’s first round struggles continued and the Maple Leafs lost games five, six, and seven to end their most promising season since 1967

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the 2021-22 regular season would see the Leafs set a franchise record 115 points and finish 4th overall. Auston Matthews would set the Toronto scoring record with 60 goals and led the league while winning another Rocket Richard Trophy... he also won the Hart Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award

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the 2022 Playoffs... Toronto would face the two time defending Stanley Cup Champs in round 1. The Leafs won game one 5-0 and then traded wins up until game 6 where they were up 3-2 in games and had Tampa Bay facing elimination... trailing 2-1 with less than a minute to go in the 2nd period... Tavares scored 2 goals 26 seconds apart to put Toronto up 3-2 heading into the 3rd. Two suspect third period penalties put the Leafs down two men and Tampa tied the game. They then scored in overtime to force game 7. In game seven, a game tying goal by Tavares was called back on another suspect call and Tampa went on to advance with a 2-1 win

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the 2022-23 regular season saw Toronto finish tied for 4th overall with 111 points on a 50-21-11 record... John Tavares finished the season with 80 points on 36 goals and 44 assists

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the 2023 playoffs would see Toronto face Tampa Bay again... in game two, Tavares scored the first playoff hat trick by a Maple Leaf since 2003. He then scored the overtime winner in game 6 to eliminate Tampa and Toronto won it's first playoff round since 2004. The Leafs were eliminated by Florida in game 5 of the second round, while the Panthers went on to the Stanley Cup final

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April 27, 2024... Game 4 in Toronto with William Nylander in the lineup... Boston opened a 3-0 lead, while Auston Matthews and Ilya Samsonov did not come out to start the 3rd period. Joseph Woll started the third and Mitch Marner was the only Toronto scorer as Boston won the game 3-1. The Bruins now take a 3-1 series lead into Boston as the Leafs face elimination in game 5.

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