National Hockey League

For Tavares to produce, supporting cast is needed

Published Aug. 12, 2009 11:33 p.m. ET

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More often than not in recent years, the No. 1 pick in the draft has quickly become a savior for the franchise lucky enough to win, or at least not lose, the lottery — Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Rick Nash, Ilya Kovalchuk, for example — but for sustained success, those players can't do it by themselves.

Crosby and Ovechkin have stellar supporting casts (backed up by other high draft picks such as Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury and Nicklas Backstrom) and have postseason success to show for it. Nash and Kovalchuk's teams are still working on it.

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