JT for less than one year will not cost Tarasenko or Schwartz+Parayko. You are crazy.
Tavares gets traded if and only if he refuses to re-sign with the Isles. At that point Snow has to trade him or fear losing him for nothing.
The Blues equally don’t do this unless they are confident they can re-sign him.
He will likely go for a large package of futures and a roster player. The bidding war will only take place between 1) teams that are in the playoffs, 2) teams that can re-sign him, 3) teams that are not in his NTC, and 4) teams that are not in the East, or at the very least the Metro.
JT controls his destiny, and Snow is not going to let him stay in the East if he can help it. After all those prerequisites, I think STL has the best chance of landing him if we are interested. No other team has the cap, the supporting cast, the need, the window, the pieces to trade, and the location to match all of those requirements. Even if you allowed for him to be traded in the East, no other team provides a better place to win than STL for the money, and presumably that’s why he would leave NYI - otherwise he would just stay if he’s okay with making similar to less money but in a worse team that couldn’t get it done when he was a bargain and only managed to bring in Eberle, an aging Ladd, and lost Hamonic in recent years.
I’ll be mildly surprised if he stays, but I would be absolutely shocked if he leaves and goes anywhere else. And yes, I am that confident that unless there is a Shattenkirk-sequence “I want to go here because I have non-hockey, non-money reasons” that STL is far and away the best fit.
But to get back in topic, grabbing a 2RW is essential, IMO, to a successful cup run this year, sans Tavares. Otherwise, what we are really doing (and what I have predicted would happen) is going for it next year after the rookies get mother year, Fabbri returns, and one or more of Thomas, Kyrou, Thompson, Kostin, Walman, Mikkola, and Husso enter the NHL. I always thought we would be good - even President’s trophy good this year, but next year is the beginning of our legitimate pushes for a cup.