‘Chris Tanev for playoff MVP’: The most-hit Maple Leaf just won’t back down

Chris Tanev has set the tone for the Maple Leafs’ resilient blue line and laid it on the line in a physical series against Florida. Luke Fox has the story on the “Head of the snake,” as teammates and opponents alike sing his praise.

May 13, 2025 - 21:12

‘Chris Tanev for playoff MVP’: The most-hit Maple Leaf just won’t back down

TORONTO — “Chris Tanev for playoff MVP!”

Respected Toronto Maple Leafs alum Curtis Joseph is wrapping up a discussion on his former club’s heavyweight second-round tilt versus the Florida Panthers on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast when he, unprompted, feels compelled to get in his early Conn Smythe vote.

No matter how deep Tanev and his hometown team go this spring, the 35-year-old will be, at best, a longshot to win the trophy.

Stay-at-home, puck-gobbling, forecheck-abused, smart-first-pass defencemen hardly fit the profile of prestigious individual award winners.

But he might win the thing if MVP ballots were handed out to goalies, past and present.

Heck, 25 per cent of the playoff starters still standing — Toronto’s Joseph Woll and Dallas’s Jake Oettinger — went out for dinner this season and ended up gushing about how great it is to protect a net that Tanev is already protecting.

Curtis Joseph views Tanev as the cornerstone of the smartest and stingiest, roughest and toughest Maple Leafs blue line of the Core Four era; the tone-setter of a playoff team that has blocked more shots (215) than any other team in the Sweet 16; and a “no-brainer” to be on Team Canada’s Olympic roster in 2026. (Tanev was under serious consideration for the 4 Nations squad but just missed out.)

“He’s a stud defenceman to me. He plays hard,” Joseph says. “This is a coming-out for his career, playing for the Leafs, getting all eyes on him.

“All those guys are playing great, but Tanev has been the big difference-maker back there.”

That Tanev led the Leafs in plus/minus in the regular season (+31) and again in the post-season (+5) despite getting a steady diet of the opposition’s most dangerous forwards is a fine place to start.

Where does Tanev rank among all the defencemen teammate Simon Benoit has played with?

“He’s up there,” replies Benoit, compiling a quick mental power ranking. “Probably top one.”

Tanev is the clear No. 1 among all playoff skaters in hits taken (81), with 35 more than the next most-slammed player, teammate Morgan Rielly (46).

“Taking hits, blocking shots,” William Nylander says, with admiration. “Just laying his body on the line for the boys every night.”

In fact, half of the league’s top 10 most hit players are Leafs defencemen (Tanev, Rielly, Jake McCabe, Benoit, Brandon Carlo), which speaks to the visceral game plan imposed by Paul Maurice’s Stanley Cup champions — and should be of some concern in Leafland as this hate-fuelled quarterfinal swells into a war of attrition.

“We play a certain style that’s hard to play and hard to play against. It’s no secret, we try to put everything in and try to be physical. And not just on (Tanev), but it’s on their whole team,” explains Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk.

“Over a course of a series, if you continue to do that shift after shift, it’s human nature —you’re going to wear down.”

And yet? The undrafted Tanev remains undeterred, unfathomably unfearful.

The veteran right shot is the hockey equivalent of an inflatable punching bag, the human embodiment of Chumbawamba’s greatest (only?) hit. He gets knocked down, but he gets up again.

“Tough as they come,” says shutdown partner McCabe. “He’s so steady. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to win. We’re lucky to have him.”

“He’s an old-school type of guy,” says Berube, an old-school guy himself. Game recognize game. “He’s a warrior. He’s a competitive person. Like, he’s right up there with all the ones that have been around, laying his body on the line every night, whether it’s a block, taking a hit to make a play. I mean, you name it. He’s going to lay it on the line.”

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In Game 4, Tanev misplaced a puck between his skates in the slot, and Brad Marchand trucked him over from behind. He popped right up like Whack-a-Mole.

In Game 3, Tanev was on the business end of a flurry of slams into the glass by attacking forwards and needed to go to the dressing room. The whole barn assumed he needed bodily repairs.

So, when Berube dismissed the D-man’s mid-game break as an “equipment issue,” eyes rolled. What? Was his equipment irritating his torn muscles and separated shoulders and bruised shins?

“My skate broke,” Tanev later explained. “Obviously sucks. But the guys did a great job of fixing it and getting me back out there as quick as they could.”

The man isn’t prone to untruths and once bounced back from blocking a slapshot with his face, so we’ll take him at his word.

“He’s really good at absorbing the check and making those plays,” said defenceman Simon Benoit. “He’s been doing it for such a long time, and he’s just impressive how he does it. He blocks shots. He puts his body on the line.”

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Despite all those hits to make a pass and bolts to block a shot (28 blocks, second-most in these playoffs), Tanev hasn’t missed so much as a morning skate.

If Leafs games were major motion pictures, Tanev would be Bruce Willis in Unbreakable.

He absorbed a nasty crash into the end-boards on his bad shoulder in Game 3. Doubled over in pain, he glided to the bench, where he was wincing in pain and talking to trainer Paul Ayotte on the bench. Tanev then hopped the boards next shift.

“I feel great. Every day is a great day,” Tanev smiles, revealing his few remaining teeth. “So, you wake up and you’re happy and come to the rink.”

Remember the classic Looney Tunes? Chris Tanev is Ralph Wolf clocking in every day, knowing he’s going to get clobbered by Sam Sheepdog. Then showing up again next morning on time.

“I’ve always said how great of a player he’s been for years, but to see him at this stage, and continue to do it year after year, it’s incredible,” gushes Tkachuk, once teammates with Tanev in Calgary.

“He’s kind of like the head of the snake back there on their back end. He’s their leader. You can tell. And we’re not inside the walls of their room, but you can tell just by the way he conducts himself and talks to the team and blocks shots and then leads by example. I’ve seen it, so it’s no surprise to see what he’s doing now.”

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The youngest Leaf, Matthew Knies, has elevated his own physicality this season. One must imagine the Tanev effect is contagious. The good brand of peer pressure.

“He’s a stud back there,” Knies says. “He’s always watching. He’s thinking ahead, making the play and getting the puck out of his own zone, and blocking shots. That’s what it takes to win.”

For a man whose game is as blue-collar as it gets, Tanev is thinking ahead more than you might guess.

During the Leafs’ weekend in Fort Lauderdale, Mitch Marner tipped us off that Tanev has been spending his downtime between games studying finance.

That knowledge came in handy when deciding to sign with Toronto as a free agent, as the Canadian was wary of being subjected to a departure tax if he moved to the U.S. (Dallas was keen to keep Tanev as more than a rental.)

Tanev explains that his “10-year break” from school ended when the NHL shut down for the pandemic.

“My wife was like, ‘Why don’t you start taking classes? We’re just sitting at home,’ ” Tanev says.

Through the Players’ Association, Tanev has been picking away at his Southern New Hampshire finance degree one course at a time.

“Almost done,” he says. “I’ve always been good at it, so it’s come easy to me.”

Easy. Like withstanding pain. Or earning his peers’ respect. Or standing tall and absorbing another round of bodychecks from those pesky Panthers.

“Probably sometimes I could move it a little quicker,” Tanev says. “But it’s just playoff hockey, and that’s what happens.”

Berube chuckles when asked if he’s thought of telling Tanev to avoid so much contact.

Hey, if he ain’t broke, why fix him?

“There are probably defencemen in the league that you might be able to change the way they play with a heavy enough forecheck,” Maurice says. “But I don’t think they got anybody on their back end that’s changing the way they play because of it.”

That’s because the rest of the snake has no choice but to follow the head.