Free him to a worse team?

Tavares would never waive his NMC, the only way he does is if they put a gun to his head. Now as an Islander fan Tavares being traded for FC/as a cap dump would be amazing

Tavares isn’t a negative asset. Obviously he’s not worth a ton of value due to his contract but there are a ton of teams that would still pay for him

Tavares would never waive his NMC for this. He'd be cutting himself off at the knees going into a contract year.

What’s more amazing is how much rent Tavares should owe Islanders fans for living in their heads after 7 years and yet it’s still rent free 🤣

Fun Fact: Not only did the Islanders win a playoff series before Tavares, they won one in TORONTO before Tavares

Now that is FUNNY

Yup. Rent free.

Every Islander fan blames the guy for doing exactly what all of them woulda done & still talk about it 7 years later. It’s pretty funny how an Islanders cup is just beating the Leafs.

Which franchise is on the uptrend and which is heading for a rebuild? Not a coincidence.

Yea I too would be mad if the team and fans I chirped for an entire year not only won a playoff series before my team but won a playoff series in my teams home arena. Enjoy Tavares! And a leafs fans talking about cups is funny

lol. Who’s mad?

Only people not taking the Leafs over the Islanders would be Islanders fans. But hey we’ll keep Tavares. Have fun with Pierre Engvall for the next 7 years! & all the other “great contracts” on that team.

Fosha bro

Rent free. 🤣

As other have already stated Tavares isn’t waiving for anyone, nevermind a bottom feeder like Chicago.

I also don’t think the Hawks would be interested in Tavares at $11m next season, the guy hasn’t produced at a point per game pace since the end of his first season in Toronto… that’s actually pretty amazing for an $11m forward surrounded by the likes of Matthews, Marner and Nylander.

But how many of those teams would pay for Tavares' full 11 mil cap hit? I think the idea here would be Toronto gets a ton of cap space and Chicago gets to trade Tavares half retained. Probably won't happen but it's a fun idea

Uptrend?? 8 years in a row in the post season and have only won 1 playoff series!

Leafs fans are about the last group of fans that should be chirping other teams fans about playoff success

If we are dismissing the JT islanders free agency nonsense as a factor, Tavares would be an excellent locker room guy, his game translates well with what we need, and Chicago would be one of the only teams able to offer this flexibility for the leafs.

So yes, flexibility is at the crux of the post… but I think the leafs trading JT away for future considerations would be idiotic.

I'd argue 1 year of Tavares in the locker room < the return a half retained Tavares can command.

That’s probably true, but I think the return would be severely limited by contextual factors. This would include double retention and/or taking an unwanted contract back from the acquiring team. From that perspective it’s hard for me to agree because the evaluation of the value could be lost due to those factors. If the hawks got Tavares and extended him then I believe the locker room impact might be greater.

I think it'd be pretty hard for the hawks at this point in the rebuild to extend a player like Tavares who isn't declining as rapidly as guys like foligno. He still has a few good years left to help a team like Colorado or Boston etc.. win a cup on a team friendly deal.

I think the hawks will be on the upswing sooner than many expect, and while you are correct in making that point for Tavares sake, I would let the chips fall where they may, so to speak, after making a low risk move like this. Foligno was brought in for leadership, but bought into the rebuild and signed a two year extension to see it through. Tavares probably won’t be a Blackhawk under these circumstances, but if he was able to then I believe the leadership group could convince him to see it through.