Kurtis Gabriel, who spent one season with the Toronto Maple Leafs' organization, shared a story about spending time at John Tavares' cottage in the summer of 2021. He referenced former Leafs such as Jason Spezza, Michael Bunting, Jake Muzzin and Wayne Simmonds.
John Tavares was the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs for five seasons. As a leader of the team, former Maple Leafs right winger Kurtis Gabriel revealed how Tavares looks after his teammates off the ice and in the off-season.
In a recent interview with theScore, Gabriel shared a story about what his introduction was like joining the Maple Leafs organization and the experience he had at Tavares' cottage in Lake Rosseau.
Toronto signed Gabriel to a one-year contract in July 2021, and not long after signing, Gabriel said he received a message from Tavares. He was welcoming Gabriel to the team, but also invited him to his cottage for later that summer.
From that point onward, Gabriel, a Newmarket, Ont., native, felt a part of the team instantly.
The enjoyment of the experience for Gabriel started well before the team arrived at Tavares' vacation spot.
"I'm in a car pool up with Jason Spezza, two-and-a-half hours to John Tavares' cottage," Gabriel recalled. "The best hockey chat ever, I wish I had a recording of that. That guy is going to be a GM and win a Cup one day."
After three seasons with the Maple Leafs, Spezza became a special assistant to GM Kyle Dubas. Now, he has just wrapped up his third campaign as the assistant GM for the Pittsburgh Penguins and his second year as GM of the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Gabriel later revealed that he was bunk buddies with Michael Bunting, who had also signed with the Maple Leafs in the same off-season.
"We're both Toronto boys, he's from Scarborough," he said. "It's like Christmas morning every day."
Gabriel then dives into what transpired and the activities that went on. He said they had the team's trainers up there with them, they played pickleball, as well as some more training on the ice or running at a field.
"We come back, he's got the team chef there cooking up gourmet meals," Gabriel recited. "If we're not doing that, we're going to some fancy restaurant, and he pays for everything. If we're not doing that, John Tavares is taking his clinical captain mindset to oven-baking pizzas in his outdoor pizza oven."
Gabriel explained that they also did some wakeboarding and campfire conversations, and through it all, he noted how kind and inclusive his new teammates had been to him.
He recalled Spezza and some others chatting with Gabriel about his LGBTQ advocacy, Jake Muzzin encouraged Gabriel to try wakeboarding for the first time, and a funny moment with Wayne Simmonds at the campfire.
"We're around the campfire, and everybody is just sitting… conversations about the dress code, about the media, 'what are we going to do to break through? Willy's got to do this," Gabriel said.
Instead of engaging much in the conversation, Gabriel remained silent and just wanted to listen to the discussion. He noted that Simmonds was also relatively quiet.
The conversation changed, and Gabriel described Simmonds as being with his hood on when somebody goes, "Simmer, what do you watch on TV?"
"He goes, 'I watch gangster s--t!' And we all just fell out of our chairs… it was one of the funniest moments of my life," Gabriel said.
After recapping that story at Tavares' cottage in the summer of 2021, Gabriel will never forget how his new teammates treated him.
"It just speaks to the kind of guys they are," he said. "They are the nicest people in the world."
Gabriel spent just one year in the Maple Leafs organization, playing 13 games with the Toronto Marlies and making no NHL appearances that season. He wound up retiring from professional hockey in 2022.
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