That's a worse team

the contract made sense at the time


they had leading scorer JVR, 3C bozak and top 9 grinder komarov leaving in UFA, they had to fill the leadership gap, the scoring gap and the centre depth. JT fixed all that and insulated them against injury when matthews got hurt, marleau declined and nylander didn't play for half the year. they prob would've missed the playoffs if they didn't sign JT. If that happens, do they trade for muzzin, or do they simply tank? The team would regress hard



year 2 likely would've been worse, with no major expendable asset to trade for a dman, (this assumes they also got muzzin which they may not have), they likely keep hainsey around.

it's a long depressing rabbit hole that likely would've screwed the team over for years to come

tavares was the absolute best move they could've done in 18-19

I’ll take Tavares over Kadri, severely overrated Hoffman, and stone hands part timer Kapanen

More of these please

There's lots to lament about the leafs moves in the last decade, but tavares would be a bottom 5 one if ranked

exactly. Up to that point, Kadri had never really proved that he was going to be a capable 2C that didnt get suspended in the playoffs every year. When there is the chance to upgrade with a guy like Tavares, you do it. The problem was the peripheral signings

You're completely right about this, but another thing I'd like to point out is it seems like people also just forget there is a global pandemic happening. The cap was projected to be at a minimum of like $84m this coming year, and was only going to go up from there. They've already managed to improve their team (imo) with the big 4 and a flat cap; if there was the growth in the cap that literally everybody was expecting... pffft forget about it.

that's gotta be the most lethal takedown of kappy I've ever seen

love it lmao

How do you get rid of JT and the defense still sucks

"40M in 4 Forwards makes no sense its just dumb". But how does anything think the Leafs spending 40m on the four forwards is Tavares fault.?

11m was the going rate (right or wrong) for Tavares. Where the Leafs severely overspend was on the three RFA forwards. Just comparables at the time.....Nylander was overpaid 500,000, Matthews for his term, 2.5m, and Marner 1.5m....when comparing similar players, at the time and term. That's 4.5m. No reason at all, should the Leafs overpaid, paid "hometown premium" for their own RFAs