1- Tamba bay
2- Montreal
3- Vancouver
4- Rangers
5- Quebec (Hurricanes)

Scratch Toronto off. Theyre gonna have cap issues with Matthews, Nylander and Marner coming off for hugeeeee contracts. They don't need to overpay a fourth, Tavares, as well

1 Isles
2 Canucks
3 Flyers
4 Stars
5 Canadiens

Flyers have no need for Tavares, we literally just got Patrick

Well first I think you have to take away teams that can't afford him, regardless if Tavares wants to play for a specific team, if they can't afford him he's not going there. (Thinking Toronto, Tampa Bay, Rangers, Dallas to name a few)
Secondly, is the appeal of the market, such as "is the team competitive, or is the team heading in the right direction. (this one is very subjective, but i'll give my opinion on this.)

1. San Jose - With Marleau gone and Thornton coming off the books again, the Sharks are projected to have more than $21mil in cap space next offseason, so they can definitely afford Tavares. As to why he would want to go there, well I don't think you can beat California in terms of location, And SJ will still have solid foundation pieces in all positions (Pavelski, Couture, Burns, Vlasic, Jones). I think this is a no brainer.

2. NY Islanders - They are guaranteed to be the team to throw the most cash at Tavares, because if he leaves for nothin, The Quebec Nordiques won't be far behind if you know what I mean. Now this one will fall down to if Tavares thinks he can win there, and if the team is moving in the right direction. If he thinks that than all points to him staying.

3. Montreal - With Plekanec coming off the books and Price locked up for 8 more years, the Habs will have roughly $17mil in cap space with the only notable player to resign in Philip Danault, so they'll be able to afford him. MTL can do a sales pitch that they are in a win now and have key pieces at every position except Center ice (Price, Weber, Pacioretty, Drouin). Now will Tavares want to come to a crazy hockey market? who knows. But one thing that might scare him away like it does most players who think of coming to places like Montreal and Toronto, is the Taxes that come with making a lot of dough $$$.

4. Colombus - Cap friendly projects that Colombus will have almost $30mil in cap space when Tavares hits FA. Now they still have J.Anderson and Wennberg to resign now, and they will have guys like Atkinson, J.Johnson, and Murray to resign next year. They will still be able to squeeze in a $10mil AAV player. If Tavares is looking for a well rounded team thats heading in the right direction, that need a #1 center, It's the Blue Jackets.

Honorable mentions: Nashville, Calgary, Carolina

1 Red Wings Detroit
2 Golden Knights Vegas
3 Kings LA
4 Rangers NY
5 Bruins Boston

Vancouver, Flyers and Stars make no sense. for the Canucks, if Tavares wants to go to a rebuilding team, he might as well just stay in NYI, or go to young teams that look to be treading upwards (Carolina perhaps?) not a team that all signs pointing to hit rock bottom. Flyers don't have a need for Tavares, They need right shooting Dmen and Wingers. Stars will have ZERO cap to go after him.

Never thought of Detroit... they could be an option. Vegas would be a stretch. I doubt the Kings, Rangers, and Boston will have the cap space.

I picked VAN, PHI, and DAL because they need scoring.

Dallas need Scoring ?

MTl have good chance Tavares is a friend of Price and Weber

yeah, i think so. it's not all about having some really great players, and i think a big part of it is how good your lower lines are. Now i'm not saying JT is a lower line forward, but i'm saying that they could move down Faksa or someone and have a better 3rd line. To me you need more than 6 top 6 forwards, no joke. They should call them top 7 or top 8 forwards i'd say.

i was thinking more because of how bad they are on forward for the NHL level. They need a 1st line centre. Without one, they won't be very good.

1 Canadiens Probably Will Sign Mike Fisher To A Cheaper Deal Instead 1 Year Deal About 800,000 Thousand
2 Canes Maybe Will Sign Matt Cullen Instead

Have you seen NYI's offense???

This is a joke right? Canucks??? Flyers??? What the hell are you saying?!?!!!?

This is in no way bias, I have thought this all along

The Buffalo Sabres.

If the Sabres signed Tavares, then moved out O'Reilly for a defenseman, the salary would totally work out and it would give Tavares a huge chance to win a cup(s) with the Sabres

Would this not be appealing to Tavares?

Mittelstadt - Eichel - Reinhart
Nylander - Tavares - Okposo

Scandella - Ristolainen
McCabe - defenseman from trading O'Reilly

That would be one hell of a top 6 and top 4 + Buffalo is extremely close to Ontario.

Just a thought, but by no means dilusional.

Pieces to be good now: check
Pieces to be great 5 years down the road: check
Cap space for him: check
Close to home: check
Very good chances to win a Stanley Cup in a 5 year span if he signs: check
Great GM, coach, fans, arena, and City: check

With Point and Kucherov due for big pay raises as well as Sergachev and other young players needing raises, Tampa won't have room for Tavares

Dallas has Benn, Seguin, Radulov, Spezza, and Hanzal, with Seguin, Spezza, and Hanzal all playing down the middle. I don't think they have room, or a need, for JT.

BREAKING NEWS, this just in! ALL 31 NHL teams announce that they need and would like more scoring. what a shocker!

More SHOCKING NEWS! About 3/4 of the league needs a top 4 defenseman

What we're failing to recognize here is that a team not "needing" Tavares isn't a reason to pursue him: if he's an upgrade at the 1C position, either by sliding other centers down the depth chart or trading at least one player as a response, then he's worth signing. So the list of teams lining up for him will probably be long. There are many teams that would easily consider a $10m salary.

That being said, there's only a few things he's interested in.
1- A stable ownership and arena situation
2- A team that can be expected to compete for the Stanley Cup over the long haul
3- A crop of young players who are promising and signed long term
4- A good set of linemates for him to play with
5- A reliable front office
6- Teams that could fit him under the salary cap, even if they did what I said above and tried to trade as many pieces as possible

Failing 1 is obviously the largest holdup for Tavares to NYI, and if we're assuming he's in real danger of leaving, then NYI, Arizona, and Florida are not reasonable destinations (Remaining: 28)
Failing 2 is any rebuilding team that won't be good for at least the next three to five years. Teams that fall under this include Colorado, Vancouver, Detroit, New Jersey, and Vegas (Remaining: 23)
Failing 3 is any team on the last legs of their cup window. Teams that fall under this include San Jose and Chicago (Remaining: 21).
Failing 4 is any team with an obviously poor LW/RW group. There aren't that many teams that fail this, but I'd wager Los Angeles does. (Remaining: 20)
Failing 5 is any team with unreliable management. I believe we've already eliminated all the teams that are included in that.
Failing 6 is any team with an obvious cap problem and would be a series of significant moves away to completing this. Toronto, Edmonton, Dallas, Anaheim, Washington, and Ottawa all fail this (Remaining: 14).

Furthermore, there has to be major interest from the team. Which teams would have none, or at best very little? Pittsburgh seems like the only team left who has no need to add another massive money center. (Remaining: 13)

So who is left?

Unlikely - Tampa Bay, Winnipeg, Nashville, Boston, New York Rangers, Columbus (Remaining: 7)
Tampa: Would have to move significant assets to fit Tavares in, along with complicating their long term cap issues.
Winnipeg: Lots of expensive RFAs coming up.
Nashville: Adding Tavares, while possible, would muck up their cap situation significantly for their defensemen.
Boston: 2+ trades including players with NMCs....unlikely but possible
NYR: Although possible, they have a lot of young players that will be coming up looking for raises, and I find it hard to believe Tavares would join the Islanders' biggest rival.
Columbus: They would have to move a bunch of deals, and it may block the payment of Panarin/Werenski

Possible: Buffalo, Philadelphia, Calgary, Montreal, Minnesota (Remaining: 2)
Buffalo: Eichel and O'Reilly are a great 1-2 punch that they probably don't need to allocate additional money, but could if they wanted to move O'Reilly to the wing.
Philadelphia: Any move they make would probably involve shipping out Giroux, but maybe not immediately, since most of their young defensemen won't be coming off their ELCs for a couple years.
Calgary: If Backlund gets less than 6 million and the young defensemen step up, then Tavares could be added. It would likely require a couple of moves, but none are that ridiculous
Montreal: A great situation if Tavares believes the team isn't sinking
Minnesota: A lot of money will be tied up in young players, but there could potentially be enough, especially if they opt not to resign Koivu.

In hot pursuit: Carolina and St. Louis
Carolina: They have oodles of cap space, along with a need for a top-flight offensive presense on a team that desperately needs offense. Especially if Aho, Pesce, Hanafin, and Lindholm can keep from truly breaking the bank, there's plenty of reason to believe a Tavares addition could be in the cards.
St. Louis: With Paul Stastny coming off the books and his 7 million with it, along with their best young players locked up long term, St. Louis is poised to make a major run at Tavares, if he believes in the future of Jake Allen.

My top 5 contenders:
1. Carolina
2. St. Louis
3. Montreal
4. Buffalo
5. Philadelphia

Philadelphia has zero interest in getting Tavares. The majority of our cap will be spend on our 5-6 prospect defensemen (Provorov-Ghost-Morin-Myers-Sanheim-Hagg). Wayne Simmonds is going to be receiving a pay raise, and we have to be sure to be able to pay Carter Hart/Felix Sanstrom, Nolan Patrick and Oskar Lindblom.

Practically all Flyers ELC are coming off in 1-2 years, which by signing Tavares, would screw the team with cap

1. Montreal
2. St. Louis
3. Carolina
4. San Jose
5. Nashville

But wouldn't is also make sense for the Flyers to sign Tavares and then trade Giroux?