In comes John Tavares. The 27-year-old center went along one of the routes of James, and signed a seven-year, $77 million deal to leave the New York Islanders, and play for his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs.
Tavares could have accepted more money to remain on Long Island, who has a new front office, Calder Trophy winner Mathew Barzal, and a new arena coming in the next three years. Instead, he went to a Toronto squad who already has 2017 Calder Trophy winner Auston Matthews, and has lost in the first round of the playoffs each of the past two seasons.
Drew Doughty and Oliver Ekman-Larsson signed eight-year extensions with Los Angeles and Arizona respectively, and Ryan McDonough extended for eight years in Tampa, after coming over mid-season from the New York Rangers.
Most likely, Tavares will become the 22nd captain in Maple Leaf history. The Leafs have not used a captain since Dion Phaneuf was dealt leading into the 2016 trade deadline.
The Islanders are hopeful that draft picks Oliver Wahlstrom and and Noah Dobson can make the opening-night roster, rather than spend their first season with the club’s AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Wahlstrom, Dobson, and Barzal may be the only thing Islander fans have to look forward to until their new building is finished across from Belmont Park in 2020. (The Islanders won a big to develop the new arena over a similar pitch from NYCFC of the MLS, which proves that hockey will always reign supreme over soccer in the United States.)
Toronto is coming off a 105 point season in 2017-18, and could be a favorite in the Atlantic Division with Tavares in two. Tampa Bay will always be the cream of the crop in the division, and you should start to see Boston slide back a bit next year. Outside of Detroit’s youth movement, there is not another playoff contender in the division. Buffalo could be there by the end of the decade now that Rasmus Dahlin is going to be on the ice the same time as Casey Mittelstadt and Jack Eichel this year.
It is a great story that Tavares grew up in Mississauga, Ontario, and went to sleep with Leaf sheets on his bed every night. However, Tavares did not give new Islander team president Lou Lamoriello (who was in the same role with Toronto last season) an hour into free agency, before advising he would not return.
Tavares has twice as many points (621) than penalty minutes (302) through his first nine seasons as a profession, and was a finalist for the 2013 Hart Trophy (eventually won by Washington’s Alex Ovechkin). He was undoubtedly the biggest name in the modern era to hit the open market as unrestricted. The two Leaf visits to Long Island fall on 28 February and 1 April. The first will be at Barclays’ Center, the second at the renovated Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the two arenas Tavares called home since 2010. As if the attendance for both buildings were not in the bottom three of the entire league, now you have New Yorkers attending to get their pound of flesh.
See, when LeBron leaves Cleveland for either Houston or Los Angeles, he ended a 54-year championship drought for his city. Toronto ranks right below the Chicago Cubs as the most lovable losers in the Big Four leagues. Tavares is going home, and likely will not find the same level of success in his new uniform. A hockey game does not ebb and flow where one player can completely dominate an entire game like the NBA. Tavares will be a target in the league’s hometown market, and quite honestly should be treated as such by the other 30 teams.
Nice story, bad look.
-JC24