Player Discussion How overpaid is Tavares

[Zybalto]

Interesting looking at era adjusted rankings for goals and assists all time and Tavares place on them.

Here are the players not in the HHOF in the top 50 for goals and their ranking:

1. Ovi
3. Jagr
10. Crosby
16. Stamkos
17. Marleau
27. Tkachuk
30. Malkin
31. Tavares
34. Kane
36. Bondra
38. Pavelski
44. Carter
46. Staal
50. Nash




Here are the players in the top 50 for points:

3. Jagr
4. Crosby
5. Ovi
8. Thornton
14. Malkin
16. Kane
22. Kopitar
32. Marleau
36. Stamkos
37. Giroux
41. Tavares
47. Brind'Amour
50. Damphousse


He's gonna end up crazy high on both of these lists and got me thinking of who on these lists is in danger of not making the hall based on being in a lower scoring era.

Tkachuk and Bondra sure seem to be criminally underrated as goal scorers and should be in the hall.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Maybe he's overpaid by 3 or 4 million for now.

 

[Leafs87]

However if he was offered 13. Does that give those numbers an over under of half or even a quarter of the difference?

I don’t think being offered more makes this a better deal for Toronto. Remember the Oilers offered David Clarkson more and he unfortunately elected to go with our offer.

 

[hockeywiz542]

Nick Kypreos: Even a hat trick can’t shake the realities the Maple Leafs face with John Tavares

The Leafs know that having Tavares as their second-line centre historically hasn’t worked out. They’d be ill-advised to stick with that formula again.

www.thestar.com

Look around the tough Atlantic Division and the weakness is glaring. You’ll see Tampa Bay still has Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli as a one-two punch down the middle. Florida has Aleksander Barkov and Sam Bennett. Each of those four players are in their prime and bring a toughness that is required in the playoffs. They have Stanley Cup rings to show for it.

We don’t need to imagine whether a duo of Matthews and Tavares could overcome that kind of physicality from those division rivals to win a seven-game playoff series, we’ve seen it go the wrong way more often than not. Besides, Toronto couldn’t get past Boston last year, and they had centres Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle at the top of their depth chart.

With their commitment to this core group dragging on another year, it’s fallen on Berube to mix up the lines and try to create internal change, at least for now. They appear destined for another trade deadline deal for an O’Reilly-type centre.

While Tavares has still been finding a way to get on the scoresheet this season — he had two goals and four assists through his first eight games before breaking out with three goals on Monday — the juggling of lines has already shown that Berube is dealing with what former head coach Sheldon Keefe saw the last few seasons. Without any real offensive consistency from bottom-six forwards like Pontus Holmberg, Nick Robertson and Bobby McMann, Berube has limited options when it comes to how best to use Tavares.

Beyond this season the jury is still out on whether Tavares has a future with the Leafs. It appears some discussion toward re-signing him was mentioned when he gave up the captaincy to Matthews, but no promises were made.

For those talks to become legitimate, the Leafs will need ample proof that he can thrive and contribute in a bottom-six role and make the players around him better. That hasn’t happened through the majority of the first six weeks of this season.

 

[notDatsyuk]

Not knocking his hattrick, but for two of the goals the puck was sitting in the crease, and on the third one the goalie had been pulled.

 

[1specter]

Apologize to the man

 

[GoonieFace]

Let’s remember the same things were said early in the season the past few years. Once the season really gets going and most guys are up to full speed, JT starts to fall behind

 

[Evilhomer]

Let’s remember the same things were said early in the season the past few years. Once the season really gets going and most guys are up to full speed, JT starts to fall behind

I'd like for the Leafs to move on from him, but I don't see it happening. He will retire here, and it will be on a goofy 7 year/$21 million contract that fans of every other team in the league will call cheating.

 

[notbias]

Can we change the thread title to "underpaid" now?

 

[ACC1224]

I'd like for the Leafs to move on from him, but I don't see it happening. He will retire here, and it will be on a goofy 7 year/$21 million contract that fans of every other team in the league will call cheating.

Why would that contract be cheating?

 

[WillyC]

11 points in 10 games

 

[93gilmour93]

He looks underpaid the last few games

 

[Evilhomer]

Why would that contract be cheating?

It wouldn't be, but that's what other fans will say because it's the Leafs.

 

[ACC1224]

It wouldn't be, but that's what other fans will say because it's the Leafs.

You lost me. All good.

 

[Larcos_Unal]

Great start, now let's see this all season long and ESPECIALLY in the spring

 

[Maple Leaf]

Great start, now let's see this all season long and ESPECIALLY in the spring

Nice to see these points but can he skate in OT?

 

[ponder]

I’ve often been a Tavares critic, but he’s been playing GREAT recently! Motor’s going, really clicking with Willy and Patches, just competing hard and making great plays. He’s earning that salary now for sure, if he played like this frequently I don’t think any of us would have a problem with his contract.

Also really liked that assist where, like 10 seconds earlier a Seattle player was giving him some cross checks in front of the net, he was clearly pissed, and was just like “we’re scoring.” Went hard after the puck and made a beauty pass to give Willy a tap in. Was playing with some fire!

 

[arso40]

I’ve often been a Tavares critic, but he’s been playing GREAT recently! Motor’s going, really clicking with Willy and Patches, just competing hard and making great plays. He’s earning that salary now for sure, if he played like this frequently I don’t think any of us would have a problem with his contract.

Also really liked that assist where, like 10 seconds earlier a Seattle player was giving him some cross checks in front of the net, he was clearly pissed, and was just like “we’re scoring.” Went hard after the puck and made a beauty pass to give Willy a tap in. Was playing with some fire!

He can’t possibly earn that contract but it’s the final year and we’ve come this far already we can see the light at the end of the tunnel

 

[1specter]

Let’s remember the same things were said early in the season the past few years. Once the season really gets going and most guys are up to full speed, JT starts to fall behind

Well everyone was quick to call him cooked and washed up because he was struggling playing through a bad flu bug for a couple of weeks in October, yet he's only been held pointless in two games and has been unreal the last couple of games. Credit where it's due, can't just go over the top shitting on him when he's not at his best and then not acknowledge when he's playing well.

 

[IPS]

Let’s remember the same things were said early in the season the past few years. Once the season really gets going and most guys are up to full speed, JT starts to fall behind

JT started last season with 12 points in his first 9 games by Halloween as well. We obviously all wish he could do this all year but let's be real here - you cannot underestimate his ability to be absolutely useless for extremely large stretches during the season.

 

[thewave]

He should be back down to about 3m next season but I would move on. Worse case scenario is we go 1x5m or something but I may be OK with 3x3m

 

[Racer88]

Tavares has been our 2nd best 11 million dollar man next to Willy so far this year

 

[thewave]

Tavares has been our 2nd best 11 million dollar man next to Willy so far this year

I think Patches chemistry allows him to be more useful. Willy is pretty special covering more ice I would expect of him as a Winger.