Toronto Maple Leafs centre John Tavares joined Team Canada in Vienna on Monday ahead of this week's world hockey championship.

He skated on the team's top line at practice, between Vegas Golden Knights forwards Jonathan Marchessault and Mark Stone.

Tavares had previously agreed with the team on a delayed arrival and it remains unclear if he will play in the team's exhibition game against Austria on Tuesday.

In his first season with the Maple Leafs, Tavares scored a career-high 47 goals and 88 points. He added two goals and five points in seven playoff games. 

"We expected a longer spring, a deeper playoff run in Toronto and it was disappointing, and certainly still stings, but getting the opportunity to play for your country and try to win a gold medal, try to be a world champion, is still a great opportunity," Tavares said Monday of his decision to play at the tournament. "Physically, I feel really good, the summer that I have ahead of me, I've still got a lot of time to prep for next year and have a lot of good down time to recuperate.

"This is a great opportunity and I like our mix of guys here. It'd be nice to add some hardware."

The 28-year-old is taking part at the worlds for the first time since 2012 and has never medalled at the tournament in three appearances. He has, however, won gold at the world juniors (twice), the Olympics and the World Cup while playing for Canada previously.

Canada used the following practice lines Monday:

Forwards

Marchessault-Tavares-Stone
Strome-Couturier-Reinhart
Henrique-Turris-Mantha
Bertuzzi-Joseph-Cirelli/McCann

Defencemen

Chabot - Montour
Nurse - Severson
Theodore - Stecher
Fabbro - (Dorion)

Goaltenders

Murray
Hart
Blackwood