Let's analyze!
Your initial suggestion:
When I contested, you replied:
And when I asked for examples, you provided Tanev and McCabe.
For clarification, Tanev was about 3 months younger than Tavares will be when his contract comes up. Tanev signed 6 years, $4.5M/year. This inflates to $4.9M/year under next season's cap.
McCabe is about four years younger than Tavares will be when his contract comes up. McCabe signed 5 years, $4.7M/year. This inflates to $5.1M/year under next season's cap.
So not only were neither of your examples older as you claimed, but they both signed for $1M+/year more than the $3.5M/year you suggested for Tavares, under a lower salary cap.
And neither McCabe nor Tanev is as good as John Tavares.
Try again.