None of this is true. It’s well known that we weren’t the highest bidder when he signed here.
Whoa whoa whoa, don't let the truth get in the way of this Tavares blows circle jerk.
If you look at 3 x 7 objectively, which seems to be incredibly difficult to do here, it's pretty good for both sides. Is it a huge discount? No. Could Tavares get more than that on the open market? Likely, just look at the comparable players.
Of the four guys closest to him in PPG this year, the average salary of the three guys not on a rookie contract is 7.9 million dollars. If you look at the guys above his production... well, let's not because they are averaging more than that.
If you look at comparable guys and their contracts, Joe Pavelski is the closest (which is why his name keeps coming up). He got this exact deal under a lower salary cap (and actually produced less, but scored more goals, than JT is so far this year). Anze Kopitar is another, he got 2 x 7, but he was also 37 (and made 10 million a year through his 34-36 aged years).
I know no one is excited to hear this news, but objectively speaking (which sweet lord is how I hope Treliving is looking at things), 3 x 7 for JT is actually pretty good. If there is another option out there that is as good (or better) for that kind of price tag, by all means, let's go exploring... but what does that list look like? Sam Bennett has never scored 30 goals or 50 points in the league. The only time Tavares has been under 50 points is a strike shortened season and over the last three years plus this, Tavares has 31 more goals than him. Yanni Gourde has gotten to more than 50 points once in his career, 2017-18 in Tampa, and has never scored more than 25 goals. Matt Duchene is probably the best bet? If you think you can get him for anywhere close to his current salary (3.5), aren't you signing two centres? Hell, don't we have to sign two centres?
This is all to say, I get why fans are emotional, but that doesn't mean that this contract rumour is wildly off base, it's actually pretty great value for the team that signs it.