Tanev does homework on the road and Leafs defenceman is almost finished his degree

When the Toronto Maple Leafs are on the road, many players often turn to video games or checking out the local sights and sounds to pass their time away from the rink.

But for 35-year-old defenceman Chris Tanev, the team’s second-oldest regular player, he’s opted for a bit of a different route to keep his brain occupied.

“He’s one of a kind, he [likes to keep to] himself. He does schoolwork still on the road a lot,” Leafs forward Mitch Marner told reporters in Florida over this past weekend. “Anything he starts, he wants to finish.”

Tanev later revealed that he’s been working on finishing his finance degree for nearly half a decade while still playing in the NHL.

“Of course, Mitch [spilled the beans],” Tanev said with a laugh and his signature gap-toothed smile.

Tanev spent one year in university before the Vancouver Canucks came knocking and signed him as an undrafted free agent. Well, 867 NHL games and 15 seasons later in a career that also spanned through stints with the Dallas Stars and Calgary Flames, Tanev is nearing the end of finishing up his degree.

“I went to school for it for a year, and then took a 10-year break. When COVID happened, my wife was like, ‘why don’t you start taking classes, we’re just sitting at home?'” Tanev added.

Through online classes at Southern New Hampshire University, Tanev was able to transfer his credits from Rochester Institute of Technology, taking just one class at a time.

“I’m almost done,” Tanev said. “I’ve always been good at it. It’s come easy to me.”

In 10 playoff games with Toronto this year, Tanev has logged an average of 19 minutes a night, picking up a goal and two assists along the way.

While we can’t project how Tanev will perform in the remaining five years of his contract with Toronto, we can bet that it won’t take him all that long to find a new career whenever he does decide to hang up the skates.