Speculation: All Tavares talk here

[Navin R Slavin]

My source is Gary Roberts

He is a Canes insider back from when he was basically phantom coaching the team for Muller

 

[MinJaBen]

Boom Boom weren't you the one that set fire that Faulker wanted out of Carolina? I'm not buying this Taveres talk.

 

[Joe McGrath]

FWIW my source told me it's only 50/50 at this point. Snow wants Aho included and Francis is having none of it. I think it's gong to wind up being Hanifin/Gauthier/1st in 2020/Alves for Tavares and Ladd's elephantine contract.

 

[The Stranger]

he so yearns for a Stanley Cup.

Do you ever yearn?

 

[RodTheBawd]

What happened to you? You've become such a negative Nancy recently. Worse than me.

Ha, work I just couldn't believe the number of internal heads something could so easily fly over.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Training camp can't come soon enough.

 

[HisIceness]

Wonder if he would be a deadline move or if Francis would try to pull the trigger before the season

I mean, anything is possible but a move like this would usually mean the team receiving the player is gunning for the Cup. That is not us at this time. A trade like this w/o the player resigning would probably be a death blow. And this team really doesn't need another long rebuild.

I would guess too the Islanders don't really want to trade their franchise player to a divisional opponent. If Tavares doesn't resign with the Islanders and is traded at deadline day, it's probably going to be somewhere out West, or someone in the East with a lot of assets to give away.

Tavares signing here as a FA would be awesome. But trading for him? Forget it, too much to risk here and being that we share a division w/ the Islanders they're going to want more from Francis anyway.

 

[HisIceness]

On another note, I remember the Trade/FA board thread that was made 5 years ago when Alex Semin signed here as a FA. Someone made the comment of "You're next Tavares!" Meaning that one of the two biggest Canes killers of all-time was already wearing the Hurricanes sweater, and that the other Canes killer was in our future.

Who the hell knows, but that would certainly make games against the Islanders a lot easier.

 

[sheriff bart]

FWIW my source told me it's only 50/50 at this point. Snow wants Aho included and Francis is having none of it. I think it's gong to wind up being Hanifin/Gauthier/1st in 2020/Alves for Tavares and Ladd's elephantine contract.

I was right there with you until I saw Alves included in the deal. He's a 1.000 career NHL goalie. He led the league last year in sv%.

 

[Roboturner913]

Alves is obviously a very solid prospect but I think losing him would be worth it, if that's what it took.

These rumors are just nuts right now, you can't swing a dead cat online without hitting a Tavares to Carolina rumor. I thought it was all a big joke until I saw it for myself.

 

[AD Skinner]

My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Tavares' name on a plane ticket to RDU last night. I guess it's pretty serious

 

[Lempo]

FWIW my source told me it's only 50/50 at this point. Snow wants Aho included and Francis is having none of it. I think it's gong to wind up being Hanifin/Gauthier/1st in 2020/Alves for Tavares and Ladd's elephantine contract.

Which Aho?

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

So I was able to talk to my buddy this morning. He's been in Europe for the past 3 weeks, but said he has heard nothing about Tavares out of the Canes camp. He said it's not surprising though since Francis has only a small group of people that know what discussions are or aren't occurring and is very tight lipped. Even all this Duchene talk earlier was media speculation because there was nothing coming out of the Canes camp from what he can tell. Expansion draft, NHL draft, Darling, Kruger, TVR, etc... he said nobody knew anything until the pick was made or the deal went to the NHL office for approval.

He did re-iterate to me thought that Francis does have the green light to buy at the deadline should the team be in contention for the playoffs. He said Francis firmly believes they are a playoff team if Darling can do what they think he can do and already has a small list of players he is having his scouts focus on, but he didn't have any names. As I said before, he does not want just a rental. If he is a buyer, he wants a guy that either is signed for longer or they have a very good chance of re-signing. He said they are looking at two main areas. One is a center (duh), which he believes would make this team a SC contender, and the other, surprisingly was a defenseman. I asked about the defenseman and he didn't know much, but speculated that they want a guy who is a weapon on the PP since right now, they really only have Faulk that is a weapon on the PP. They like how Hanifin is developing in terms of being a PP QB, but none of Hanifin, Slavin, or Pesce have shown that they are top tier PP guys. If those guys take another step forward in terms of the PP, then that won't be a focus area, but if they don't, the Canes might be looking for a PP specialist to add at the deadline. Again, that is just his speculation.

As always, I don't know how much my buddy really knows vs. just his speculation so take it all with a grain of salt.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

This is one of those things where we make up a rumor to see which media outlets pick it up, yeah?

 

[Navin R Slavin]

This is one of those things where we make up a rumor to see which media outlets pick it up, yeah?

Nope.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

tavares is as good as ours at this rate

have it on good authority that he has always wanted to wear the sightless eye

 

[CandyCanes]

I'd rather trade for Aaron Judge

 

[bleedgreen]

This is like, Dixie chick serious.

 

[AD Skinner]

Super cereal you guys

 

[Lempo]

This is like, Dixie chick serious.

Oh no those hateful days back then when entertainers vocally had issues with the incumbent president. It was kind of tedious time.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

This is one of those things where we make up a rumor to see which media outlets pick it up, yeah?

You must be a lot of fun at parties.

I don't think it is one of those things though. Based on what others have heard, the Canes salary situation, the lack of a 1C on the roster, and the fact the team thinks it's a playoff team right now, I think it makes a lot of sense. This could be one of those "where there's smoke there's fire" type of things. Of course, it all depends on how much Tavares wants to stay in NY. I would be surprised to see it happen before the season starts since it would be a within division move and the Isles still would be trying to re-sign him, but if the Canes do well and the Isles struggle, then a deadline deal would be very possible. If Tavares doesn't get traded at the deadline and goes UFA, then the Canes are in a prime spot to land him. They have tons of salary space, are an "on the rise" young team, have a very respected GM and Coach, and a new owner (hopefully). A lot of things line up in the Canes favor. Imagine getting him as a UFA and Aho showing he's an NHL center.

Skinner-Tavares-Williams
Rask (or Rask moved for a LW)-Staal-Lindholm
Teravainin-Aho-Gauthier
Foegele-Kruger-McGinn
PDG

Slavin-Pesce
Hanifin-Faulk
Fleury-TVR

Darling
Ward

Still a very young team (only Williams would be 30 or over) that still has the likes of Walmark, Roy, Necas, Kuokkanen, Zykov, Saarela, Smallman, Cotton, McKeown, Carrick, Bean, Martin, etc... in the system and some not too far off from being NHL ready. I'm usually not about going after high priced UFAs, but in this case, it could re-shape the frachise.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

You must be a lot of fun at parties.

I don't visit the board often in the slow times of the off-season. So separating rumors from "rumors" is a rather important distinction.

 

[HisIceness]

There seem to be a lot of flights from Long Island to RDU lately.

Hmmm, makes you think.

 

[Vagrant]

I would immediately be purchasing a Tavares jersey. He's one of my favorite non-Hurricanes. But... ya know. Reality and whatnot.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I don't visit the board often in the slow times of the off-season. So separating rumors from "rumors" is a rather important distinction.

Thankfully, this wasn't a case where it's a joke thread. No harm.