What'd you guys think of my take on Tavares?

I think you are judging by a 'now' perspective rather than considering what to expect as he gets older. He's already starting to slow down, the last few years on this deal are going to be what a Burns or Benn is now.

100% agree. There was not a single player that hit the FA market in 2018/19 worth passing on JT. If they pass on him they have a gaping hole at 3c and most likely overpay for De Haan, Cole or Myers

Only problem with this is how do they have Kerfoot if they're trading Kadri to Nashville?

agree somewhat and that d is stacked, not sure if I would do the nash trade. I think signing brodie, keeping liljgren and getting a package for kappy or kadri of futures is fine and keep one of them

I mean, I don’t disagree but that because I don’t believe he will just fall off a cliff like 95% of this site.. Pavelski at the age of 35 scored 38G and 26A in 75GP. The idea that all NHL players start digging their grave at 30 is kinda ridiculous. Yes, some do fall off cliffs but they aren’t usually the franchise players of the league. Maybe overpaid by a mill now that we are in the flat cap, sure.. I guess that 95% of people knew COVID would happen. 1 year too many in the term, sure, if he falls off a cliff. In this scenario you also wouldn’t have Kerfoot so add that cap back and move spezza back in the lineup

Tavares is an unreal talent and I don't see him completely falling off a cliff as he ages like most seem to. He was never fast to begin with and was still elite. Assuming his hands or brain don't suddenly stop working his decline will be more like a gentle downward slope. By the end of the contract he may not be worth the cap hit but I don't think it'll be that egregious

pls go through my old posts and see how hard i ripped the marner deal particularly, and this deal second. the leafs are flat out screwed unless we see an insane explosion in hockey tv viewership in the next year, irrespective of what happens with a vaccine and a return to play and people in the stands. this year's playoff tv ratings were terrible in the us. the prospects of the cap moving up in the next 3 years are likely 0. completely upside down team. they should eat something on marner and deal him for two solid young players.

not signing tavares could have been a chain reaction of disasters

1. if they don't sign JT, does the team make the playoffs in 18-19 with matthews injured, nylander out till december and not getting back in shape till march, marleau declining hard and brown regressing a little?

2. do they even pull off the muzzin trade? Does he wanna come to a non playoff team?

3. Does spezza come play in toronto if the leafs miss the playoffs? What about Thornton - also who plays RD in 19-20 if not barrie? Who are we trading to get that replacement? Nylander, Johnsson, Kappy - our offence would already be pretty meh

there are so many questions that honestly it's not even worth discussing. The JT signing was fantastic, he was the biggest free agent fish maybe ever, and he took less money to come home and win a cup with the leafs. Since that signing we've seen tons of guys take less money to come home

if I could construct a player from scratch, it would be JT. a guy with a wicked shot, amazing hands, a total hockey dork, a sturdy frame, 6'1" 215lbs, a Toronto kid who loves the leafs, a leader who can wear the C, a guy who leaves it all out on the ice every single night, injury or not.

Like, what people aren't discussing enough is the fact that JT had a broken hand (and was recovering from it) for most of the season, had a 2 month old baby at home, suffered a back injury over the summer, lost his winger in marner due to injury and STILL scored at a 34-35 goal 78 point pace

the JT signing will pay dividends later on, he's been our best player in the playoffs both years in a row

Well, I don’t think it’s fair to say he’s already slowing down. He didn’t play as good as in 2018/19, but that’s mostly cuz he was extremely bad defensively. He was still on pace for 34 goals & 78 points while his expected goals, shot attempts and scoring chance generation ranked near the top of the league.

Whoops I forgot about that. I’ll replace him with Haula.

Thanks for the feedback. Yes that’s an option too cuz Brodie is pretty good.

Thanks for the feedback, I agree. Tavares is a very smart player who anticipates the events in the offensive zone well. I feel he has the tools to stay dominant for another 4-5 years. I think people are being overly critical of him for one underwhelming year.

Bad trade for Florida
Weegar's point total doesn't tell the whole story

Yes I agree. I think given Tavares’ skillset he has what it takes to be an elite player for most of his contract. And we need to keep in mind he doesn’t embed elite players around him to be productive offensively. In NYI he had guys like Okposo, Bailey, Ladd & Moulson yet still produced at an elite rate. The fact that he has a guy like Marner on his wing now is a bonus.

I don’t disagree that the Marner Deal was an overpay a and that the Leafs will be in trouble if the cap doesn’t go up again next season. But there is still no regrets over the Tavares signing. He was a superstar free agent who signed for less money than the maximum offer. You take that every time.

All very good points. The Tavares signing strengthened their core even further than during the rebuild. There was no mistake in signing him.

What went wrong for the Leafs last season was the Kadri trade not working out and Dubas having to clean up Lou’s mess of contracts for Marleau and Zaitsev.

Now that Dubas & Keefe have had a full offseason to reconstruct the roster, I feel the team is going to do much better this upcomzing season.

Do you guys think that this team is a contender?

Kapanen is a young winger with top 6 potential and has great underlying numbers. Liljegren is a highly rated RD prospect. How is this a bad deal for Florida? They are getting more than what NYI got for Toews.

Whatever damn list you have where you can tag me in stuff, take me off it. Kill the whole thing. The vast majority have voiced that they don’t appreciate it.

It was not a mistake to sign Tavares.
It was not a mistake to sign Marleau.

The east is very hard with at least five really good teams Boston, Washington, Pittsburgh, Tampa and Toronto.
That is four cups and a runner up in the last five years for those 5 teams.
Getting to the finals wears out the teams from the east must more than the west, yet 4 cups in five year.

TBH, be happy that they came close, my Sabres are still looking to get to the playoffs.

It is absolutely a contender.

You put Dermott, but still, Weegar is the best defensive player we have, locked up on a great contract, and we shouldn't sacrifice that for the possibility of a better defender and another middle 6 forward

They came close? When?

I 100% think if Leafs don't have Tavares, they also don't have Muzzin (they wouldn't be that close to give up that many futures), but they have another TO born kid - P.K. Subban.

They were apparently in on him till the end anyways. If they have more capspace, I'm thinking PK is wearing blue & white. Dubas traded for Barrie a few weeks after, so he obviously was OK in adding another offensive dman.

It's not like NJ paid a king's ransom for him, it was pretty well two 2nds.

Getting Tavares for free as UFA at 11m was fine. At time of signing...overpaying Nylander 500,000 (see Pastarak as a comparable). No way Matthews should be 2nd highest player in the league. A five year term should have been a 9.5m contract...so that's 2m overpay. Aho and Marner had identical stats for two years....Marner was 9m contract for six years, so a 2m
That's 4.5m. that could have used to keep Kadri and made over moves