Edited Nov. 27, 2020 at 11:57 a.m.
Quoting: Nhl_oilers
Right now you see you shouldn’t have signed Tavares, but when you signed him they thought he was very good (which he is), and there was no way a player like Pietrangelo would fall to free agency. It’s hard to talk about, because of the reasons I said. At the time it was good, but now you guys are getting jealous, and thinking it wasn’t, because you wanted Pietrangelo.
Quoting: Nighthawk
Agree JT signed @11m was obvious then & now it would put pressure on the cap. Never understood the need to speedup the rebuild that was doing fine.
Did he fill a big need? Hardly
Quoting: Saskleaf
For the last time, STOP WITH THE IF WE DIDN'T SIGN TAVARES. IT WAS A GOOD IDEA, WHEN YOU CAN GET A ONE C FOR FREE, YOU GET HIM.
Quoting: ForsbergForVezina
Yeah, but with the butterfly effect, who knows what else they would've done in the summers of 18 and 19. They could've used some of that $11 million to bring back either JVR or Bozak. They might still have Zaitsev because trading him wasn't an absolute necessity when it came to getting under the cap (might still have Connor Brown too) *or* they keep Marleau for one more year and keep their 1st rounder in 2020. They could've gone out in the summer of 2019 and signed a real backup goalie instead of having to trade for one midseason. And they definitely could've hung on to Kapanen and/or Johnsson, unless they always intended to trade them after a certain point.
Obviously, you could do "what if" with literally anything, so maybe my take on the exercise is a little pointless. I just don't think their prospects of getting Petro and Brodie would've been very good. I've always believed that signing Tavares made them a much more shallow team, particularly on the wings (albeit a less important position than C) and as an outsider looking in, it's a move that I don't know if I'd want to do over. And that's not the Islanders fan in me talking lol
the team had their 3C bozak and JVR walking out the door. Marleau and Brown also regressed the next year. Nylander would miss half the season due to contract negotiations and wouldn't return to form until march. Would Kadri replicate another 30 goal season with marner? (he hasn't done it since). The leafs were signing derek ryan most likely, a shut down 3C instead of JT. There were no solutions to replenishing the scoring
without JT, this would have been the team till december
that team probably sucks huge ass. Remember, matthews got injured early on as well, is Kadri a 1C?
After nylander comes back, we see this team here
do they even pull off the muzzin trade? I would have genuine concerns whether they were even a playoff team.
Now, just imagine the ACGMs on here if dubas sat on his hands for his first free agency and the team missed the playoffs AND the rumour came out that JT wanted to take less money to come play in toronto
"but they weren't able to get a solid backup goalie or defence or depth"
they traded for muzzin (and extended him 4 years), they traded for campbell AND clifford, they traded for Barrie AND kerfoot (signed him 3 years), they traded kappy/johnsson who were playoff ghosts and acquired simmonds, vesey, spezza, thornton, barabanov, mikheyev (and extended him), boyd, etc. they acquired bogo and brodie for FREE
all of that done with tavares against the cap
also, for fun:
Brown: 1g 5p in 20gp
Kappy: 4g 7p in 25gp
Mango: 2g 6p in 14 gp
Kadri: 3g 10p in 20gp for the leafs
AAV: $13.2M-$14.7M (28p 79gp)
JT: 15g 30p in 36gp
(
4g 8p in 13gp for TOR)
AAV: $11M (30p 36gp)