CHICAGO—It was a mid-June phone call from Auston Matthews to John Tavares that helped the summer’s most coveted free agent decide he would sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

And a dinner about a month later helped cement a bond between the two star centres who will form a 1-2 punch down the middle — with Nazem Kadri adding a formidable third jab — that will make a the Leafs a tough team to play against.

Tavares acknowledged Thursday at the NHL-NHLPA players media tour it was a hard decision to leave the Islanders, but one he could not have made without Matthews’ input.

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“Hearing how bad he wanted me to come here and how supportive he was of that, was a big thing for me,” Tavares said in a one-on-one session with The Star. “I didn’t want to come here and disrupt anything, or subtract anything.”

Matthews said he knew Tavares was probably overwhelmed with advice through June as the July 1 start of free agency approached. But he had to call to make is views known.

“I don’t think I needed to give him the OK to sign,” said Matthews, chuckling. “I called him mid-June. He was getting so many calls from so many people and players. It was one of those things, you don’t want to heckle the guy or bother him.

‘”But the main thing for me is I told him I’d love to have him here. I want him here. Everybody in the organization, all the players, every single guy wants him here. He’s going to make our team better. That was really all I said.

Maple Leafs' Auston Matthews made a personal push to get John Tavares to come to Toronto. It’s no big deal to either Matthews or Tavares that the Toronto Maple Leafs will not have a captain to start the season.

“We talked about different things, probably a 20-, 30-minute conversation.”

That was when Tavares was doing the research on his suitors that so impressed the likes of Leafs GM Kyle Dubas and head coach Mike Babcock.

“I’m coming here to be a piece of the puzzle, play a role,” Tavares said. “Every player is driven to play an important role and have a lot of responsibility. A lot of that is earned. You have to prove yourself every day, every year.

“I didn’t want to come to a place where you felt like you were subtracting. With what’s been building here, I knew there was no point even considering here without having (Matthews) and the young core that’s been growing here and believing (we’re able) to keep that together, myself adding to that, building on top of that.”

The two have known each other for some time. Matthews met Tavares years ago through trainer Darryl Belfry. Matthews was an undrafted, can’t-miss prospect destined to be the first overall pick, just like Tavares had once been. Both even have birthdays coming up: Sept. 17 for Matthews, Sept. 20 for Tavares.

“(Tavares) is a special player, top-10 player in the league,” Matthews said. “His résumé speaks for himself, with how he’s handled himself, his exceptional status (in junior), a first-overall pick. We’re all excited to have him.

“I met him before I was drafted into the NHL. But now I’ve got to know him more on a personal level and he’s a professional guy. He takes his craft very seriously. that’s something us young guys can take note of.”

As Matthews and Tavares wound through the halls of a downtown hotel, answering questions from some of the biggest media outlets in North America, it became utterly clear the two players have a great deal of respect for each other.

“You get the feeling he’s a special player and he’s a person that has a special presence, someone people look to and have respect for,” Tavares said of Matthews. “It’s hard to explain, but you feel it when you’re around a guy like that.”

Tavares, at 27, is older than the core led by the 20-year-old Matthews. That includes Mitch Marner and William Nylander. But Tavares is mid-range in terms of age, right there with Kadri, his one-time teammate with the OHL London Knights.

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The Leafs have developed a tight group of players that like each other as well as respect each other.

“A couple of weeks after I signed, we went and grabbed dinner together, just to try to get to know each other more,” Tavares said. “We had some good conversations, very insightful for me to get as much information and as much understanding as I could from him and the team.

“But we were just getting to know each other as people, not even talking so much about hockey.”

It’s clear Matthews and Tavares could be co-chairs of the mutual admiration society.

“It’s massive for us to add a guy like that,” Matthews said. “The centre depth we have now with myself, Naz and him, we hope it’s one of the best in the league. We want to be successful, all of us individually, but as a team it definitely helps us and puts us in great position.”