Whether it's the extra shot of adrenaline from friends and family planted in the seats, or because the Maple Leafs have, well, struggled throughout the better part of the last decade, local boys do seem to feast in their returns to Toronto.
After missing his chance last season with injury, Connor McDavid will finally play his first NHL game in the metropolis he grew up adjacent to when the Edmonton Oilers and Maple Leafs meet at Air Canada Centre on Tuesday.
Related: 3 reasons why Matthews vs. McDavid Round 1 is must-see hockey
So we ask: Who better to carry on the tradition of torching the Maple Leafs?
For future visual representation on broadcasts, we investigated how the NHL's four Ontario-born No. 1 picks over the last two decades (excluding defenseman Aaron Ekblad) have fared across their careers in Toronto:
Joe Thornton
Having visited Toronto long enough to have scored at Maple Leaf Gardens, Thornton has the most games on this list despite less frequent trips since being traded to the San Jose Sharks in 2005.
Thornton's first game - and goal - in Toronto came in the legendary barn-turned-supermarket, in a Boston Bruins uniform. He recorded six goals and six assists across 17 games in Toronto as a member of the team that drafted him No. 1 overall in 1997. Thornton has since added one goal and seven assists across six visits with the Sharks, collecting at least one point in each.
| Games | Goals | Assists | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | 7 | 13 | 20 |
Rick Nash
Nash has been limited to just a handful of appearances in Toronto, during a career split between the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers. Unfortunate, as Air Canada Centre is the only rink where he's averaged better than a point per game.
| Games | Goals | Assists | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 4 | 6 | 10 |
John Tavares
Tavares has been the most dominant of the four No. 1 draft picks - or pretty much every pick for that matter. He's averaged a little better than 1.5 points per game in 13 starts, despite going pointless in four of them.
| Games | Goals | Assists | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | 8 | 12 | 20 |
Steven Stamkos
In the same way we suspect the environment has positively impacted returning talent, it's at times had an opposite effect on Stamkos.
The Tampa Bay Lightning captain was held pointless in Toronto last season, across three games against possibly the worst iteration of the Leafs over the past half-decade, while speculation was running rampant that he could sign with Toronto in free agency.
This season - his first on a new eight-year contract with the Lightning - Stamkos turned in a dominant performance with two goals and two assists to accelerate his scoring pace at Air Canada Centre - back beyond a point per game.
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