Speculation: Tavares landing spot?

[Thrasymachus]

He will be back in TO. Obviously a waaay cheaper contract though

This is my assumption too.

JT wants to live in the area and loves the team. He is the exact type of player I would expect to take a paycut to stick around.

Can any leaf fans give some context as to why he was stripped of the captaincy? Not to imply he was an amazing islander captain, but I am curious... Matthews over JT from an outsider POV makes less sense.

 

[Thrasymachus]

Doubt he leaves. Could see him retiring if leafs don’t want him back.

 

[Harvey Birdman]

JT most likely comes back. On a discount. Marner is gone. I assume he signs some where is a big amount of cap space. Wild stab in the dark probably a Western team.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

He will sign with a team who needs to fill their cap space. Im thinking he gets $7M per in the open market easily. Wouldnt surprise me if he signs in Calgary.

 

[Thrasymachus]

He will sign with a team who needs to fill their cap space. Im thinking he gets $7M per in the open market easily. Wouldnt surprise me if he signs in Calgary.

I don't think his wife would be happy living in Calgary.

I suppose it is possible JT's family stays located in GTA while he plays during the regular season.

 

[boredmale]

I don't think his wife would be happy living in Calgary.

I suppose it is possible JT's family stays located in GTA while he plays during the regular season.

There is always Buffalo, close enough to Toronto

 

[Thrasymachus]

legendary tweet

 

[NVious]

#neverforget

“I’m not trying to sound dramatic — that’s just actually what happened. I just sort of …. lost it, you know? I collapsed onto the couch that we have out near the pool. And I just started lying there, becoming more and more overwhelmed. Not even thinking, really, but more like … whatever comes after thinking. I was panicked. I felt frozen.”


View attachment 1038884

You Isles fans should thank us for taking him off your hands, he was abysmal.

So I'll say you're welcome, hopefully Mitch can return the favor and sign with you guys.

 

[miscs75]

You Isles fans should thank us for taking him off your hands, he was abysmal.

So I'll say you're welcome, hopefully Mitch can return the favor and sign with you guys.

Mitch however didn’t claim to ownership he wants to stay and asked to not be traded. Completely different scenarios.

 

[NVious]

Mitch however didn’t claim to ownership he wants to stay and asked to not be traded. Completely different scenarios.

Again, you should thank us, you went further than us and Tavares looked awful in the playoffs his entire tenure.

Marner refused a trade for Rantanen and was worse than Tavares on the Island.

Bottom line, you should be thankful we took your trash because that is what Tavares was in his TO tenure.

 

[Crashsunday]

Tavares takes whatever Toronto offers. He is home and has no need to go anywhere or make any more money.

 

[The Burdened]

he just scored 38 goals.
He will take a pay cut, but Leafs fans thinking 5-6 million or "whatever generous lowball offer Toronto gives him" are in for a rude awakening. That is not a pay cut that is a disembowelment.
3 x 8 or 4 x 7

 

[Gecklund]

SJ would be interested if he hits the market and probably would offer an overpayment short term. Can’t really offer the chance to win like a lot of other teams though so not sure why he’d come here.

 

[kerrabria]

I would very, very gladly take him on the Panthers.
If we lose Bennett to an overpay (Leafs number one suspect), and Tavares is willing to take a ~$6m AAV, Zito should greet him at the airport with bells on.

 

[Ole Gil]

He also just got 3 goals and 0 assists in his last 11 playoff games.

Good for a 23 goal pace over 82 games.

He did this while playing with Patches (3 goals/5 assists in 8 games) and Nylander (6 goals/9 assists 13 games).

He looked cooked last year, this year he looks to have a rejuvenation and then completely runs out of steam or in actuality he never stopped being cooked, it's just not that hard to feast on bottom feeders with so many offensive weapons on the Leafs.

The 38 goal thing seems awesome until you look at his playoff stats, 3 fantastic games, 1 good game and 9 nothing/terrible games. Basically like his season, feast on a meh team like Ottawa dealing with terrible goaltending, do the same for 1 game vs Bob when he is awful and then totally disappear. Domi had the same number of points and he's not even earning 4 mill.

Why use big sample size, when little do trick?

 

[kerrabria]

he just scored 38 goals.
He will take a pay cut, but Leafs fans thinking 5-6 million or "whatever generous lowball offer Toronto gives him" are in for a rude awakening. That is not a pay cut that is a disembowelment.
3 x 8 or 4 x 7

I could easily see Tavares taking $5-6m to stay a Leaf.

Wish I could think of a less crass word, but Tavares seems like a simp for Toronto.
He took ~$30m less than NYI and ~$14m SJS offered back in 2018. He willingly gave up the captaincy. He's never pushed back on criticism--no matter how unreasonable--and his commitment to the franchise and his TOR teammates never wavered. Look at how reflexive and emphatic his "yes" was when asked if he'd like to be back.

Tampa's final offer to Stamkos was $3m AAV, and he received $8m on the UFA market. I'm sure the Leafs will offer more, and Tavares will be more amenable than Stamkos. Tavares didn't live up to the role and contract given to him. He seems to understand that, and everything indicates he doesn't want his Leaf legacy to end this way.

 

[NVious]

Why use big sample size, when little do trick?

He sucks in the playoffs, nobody in Toronto cares about him stat padding when it doesn't matter.

He is maybe marginally better than Domi who signed at 3.5 mill.

 

[Fatass]

He sucks in the playoffs, nobody in Toronto cares about him stat padding when it doesn't matter.

He is maybe marginally better than Domi who signed at 3.5 mill.

Tavares is worth a lot more than Domi. Tavares still plays at a high level facing toughs. He’s a 7mil x 3-5 year guy on the open market. He’s might choose to stay in TO and will take less to do so. 6 mil x 4 years to stay in TO.,

 

[Ole Gil]

He sucks in the playoffs, nobody in Toronto cares about him stat padding when it doesn't matter.

He is maybe marginally better than Domi who signed at 3.5 mill.

If sucking in the playoffs determines salary, how are the Leafs ever going to get to the cap floor?

 

[Thrasymachus]

He sucks in the playoffs, nobody in Toronto cares about him stat padding when it doesn't matter.

He is maybe marginally better than Domi who signed at 3.5 mill.

Maybe over his entire career yeah. But I will never forget this moment JT lifted us out of our "cant exit first round" curse with the 2OT game winner.

 

[ArizonaCoyotes19]

Tavares takes whatever Toronto offers. He is home and has no need to go anywhere or make any more money.

No need to go anywhere? Maybe he wants to win a Stanley Cup?

 

[NVious]

Tavares is worth a lot more than Domi. Tavares still plays at a high level facing toughs. He’s a 7mil x 3-5 year guy on the open market. He’s might choose to stay in TO and will take less to do so. 6 mil x 4 years to stay in TO.,

He's really not, it would APPEAR that way, but not really.

Domi has 10 goals/33 points in his last 53 playoff games
Tavares has 17 goals/31 points in his last 51 playoff games

One guy was a 2nd/3rd line tweener who bounced around
The other guy is a 1st overall who got paid 11+ million playing with some of the best offensive weapons in the game

 

[NVious]

Maybe over his entire career yeah. But I will never forget this moment JT lifted us out of our "cant exit first round" curse with the 2OT game winner.

So again, you Isles fans should be happy.

Tavares did something good for you (did nothing for the Leafs)
You guys went further without him than with him
He failed abysmally afterwards

If I had a time machine and could stop this from happening from the TO perspective, it's not even a thought, he's an Islander for life.

 

[Fatass]

He's really not, it would APPEAR that way, but not really.

Domi has 10 goals/33 points in his last 53 playoff games
Tavares has 17 goals/31 points in his last 51 playoff games

One guy was a 2nd/3rd line tweener who bounced around
The other guy is a 1st overall who got paid 11+ million playing with some of the best offensive weapons in the game

Guys don’t get paid during the playoffs. They collect their salaries for the 82 regular season games. Teams will definitely pay Tavares a lot more than Domi.

 

[NVious]

Guys don’t get paid during the playoffs. They collect their salaries during the 82 regular season games. Teams will definitely pay Tavares a lot more than Domi.

Tavares has made it clear he wants to be in Toronto, we don't need to pay him anything special.

I'd only give him a big salary on a 1 year deal with the sole intent to move him at the TDL, he can come back in the offseason and we can do that a few more times.