I'd rather have the current roster than overpay haula/granlund and sign duclair

I'm worried about his contract when he hits his mid 30's. For the first few years, the contract won't be horrible, but he is not getting any younger.

Yah you could’ve signed Pietrangelo with Tavares’ money. Who would’ve known at the time though.

crosby, kane, getzlaf, malkin, ovi, pavelski are all still fantastic moving into their mid 30s

getzlaf dropped off around 33, pavelski saw a dip at 32 but was still able to get nearly 40 goals at 35 years old

besides, I'd rather have tavares locked up than have to give a 32 year old kadri the paul stastny deal in the same year that Mo is up

This

that ignores the context at the time though, the leafs had JVR and Bozak leaving, so they prob would've had to sign another centre (prob derek ryan) and then either get a goal scorer or just go young and the team prob would've sucked and missed the playoffs. Remember, matthews didn't play a full year and nylander didn't play till december. JT got us a lot of wins in that first half

if the team regressed in dubas' first year and there was no big free agent headed home to toronto, are guys like brodie, simmonds, spezza, and thornton gonna flock to toronto to win a cup?

if the leafs hadn't signed JT they would've been waiting around for 2 seasons, likely missing the playoffs hard in both years to sign pietrangelo, would that even be worth it?

besides, at 8.8M till he's 37, no way do I want anything to do with that pietrangelo contract, I'd rather have Brodie, Bogo and Holl lmao

Yes it would’ve, and that’s why you wouldn’t have made the Kadri trade. Pietrangelo is a top defence man. Of course it would’ve been worth it! And let’s say you would’ve been bad for 2 seasons. Oh well you go and get some sick prospects then come and offer Pietrangelo.

There was no guarantee of Pietrangelo being a free agent.

The conversation would've been the same two years down the road anyways, just swap Tavares with Pietrangelo.

so if the team is terrible and getting lottery picks, why would pietro wanna come here??

the leafs signing tavares gave them an aura of a successful team, they made the playoffs and got better. They added blue liners like barrie, Brodie, Bogo, and Muzzin with Tavares against the cap.

this is arguably the deepest leafs team ever, and we've got JT.

I've seen this type of post a handful of times.

Here's the just of it-

-Kadri was getting traded, regardless of what happened. His second consecutive playoff suspension had him ripped apart by the media and a large portion of the fanbase. It's unfortunate because he's a very good player, but Toronto is one of the most media-driven markets in the league, and that's the way it is.
-When a player of John Tavares's caliber becomes a free agent, and your team has a legitimate chance to take him, you do it.
-Saying "We could have had Granlund, Haula, Kadri and Duclair" is kind of funny. Two years ago, Duclair was a decent bet to be a waiver claim, Granlund was coming off of 67 pts in 77 games, and Haula was coming off of 55 pts in 76 games. Trading for Haula and Granlund would have cost a boat load. Or, are you saying "We should have waited two years and then signed them? Because there was probably a 50/50 shot at the time that they'd never become UFA's.
-Back to Tavares, I don't see what he's done to cause any Leafs fans to not want him? Over a point per game player, who has excelled at both ends of the ice through his two seasons. His contract also ends when he's 35 or 36, so I'm not sure why that'd be an issue. It's not like he's Brent Burns, Shea Weber, or someone along those lines who's signed until they're 80 years old?

I never understand people looking into the past like this, especially when you ended up with a player like Tavares? Like, your team literally just filled the biggest hole that they've got (Brodie at RD), have their core signed long term, and are fairly deep from top to bottom. You shouldn't be asking yourself "Why did we sign Tavares?!?!", you should be asking yourself "Why the F**K did we sign Wayne Simmonds for anything over the league minimum?"

To answer the question though, the current Leafs team is better.

His contract is done when he's 35. The back end isn't bad.

For your second point, similarly to when Erik Karlsson was available? The contract is looking good for the Sharks. Regardless, there are two types of players: playoff performers and seasonal performers. Tavares falls under the seasonal performers and Kadri is a playoff performer.

Would also give an opportunity to sign Pietrangelo instead of Brodie.

Although I believe KD let Bozak walk because we knew he had JT...

lol, Kadri was a total clown in the playoffs for 2 years and cost us the series because he was acting like a child

Tavares on the other hand single-handedly dragged the isles into the playoffs and even clawed them into the second round with a multi-goal elimination game in 2016

Kadri came off a meh 19 goal 36p season and then lit it up randomly in the playoffs with a 16% shooting percentage.

If I'm picking someone to go into the playoffs with, I'm taking JT every day of the week lmao

so you'd rather give bozak that monstrosity $5Mx3 contract?

Look Tarvares is a very good player he is one of the top 20 centers , but allocating 11+ million dollars to a forward when they had upcoming superstar forwards like Nylander, Mathews and Marner coming of ELCs a year later. His deal also increase the salary for those guys, now you can make the argument that the failure of Dubas was not signing Tarvares but giving Nylander almost 7 million dollars which increased the value of Mathews then gave Marner a winger almost 11 million dollars ( should of been in the 9 millions). Bottom line Dubas should have allocate the cap better to buy a top pairing defensive Dman and round out the bottom six.

year 1
year 2
year 3
what we have instead


imo, I am 100% taking the current team over the alternate one

Kadri is a clown in the playoffs? What? Joe Sakic is still laughing at the Kadri trade, especially with the type of performance he had in the 2020 playoffs. However, question to Avs fans. Is Kadri a clown in the playoffs? He had 9 goals and 9 assists in 15 games played.

did you forget kadri got suspended two years in a row

I'm still confused as to why we brought in Thornton. I thought Tavares was the big voice in the room since he does have the "C" on his jersey.

but he signed JT and all those forwards to long term deals, then acquired not 1 but 3 defensive dmen (brodie, muzzin, and bogo), and rounded out the bottom 6 by swapping johnsson/kap for simmonds, thornton, spezza, vesey, and barabanov with $1.875M to spare and tons of prospects/depth guys challenging for spots

all the things ppl said the leaf wouldn't be able to do with JT, they literally have done them, except the team has been better because they have JT as well

real stanley cup rosters have several captains in the lineup. You can never have too many leaders on a roster - doing that for league min is an absolute steal of a contract

So we are judging our loss based on a third line centre? Another excuse in Leafs-land. Where were the other guys? Last time I checked, Kadri didn't get suspended in the 2020 playoffs

Arrghh!!! No, I would rather have Tavares.




The thing with Pietro is that he was 3 years older when he hit free agency. So if the concern is age, Tavares is a far better option.