Speculation: Tavares Tells Toronto, "I'm YOUR Huckleberry Now". Fans leaguewide mourn.

[WeWentBlues]

The interview with Strick was on NHL Radio yesterday on SiriusXM. I'm not sure if they archive that audio. I don't have a subscription.

 

[The Note]

Can you elaborate at all on this?

I’ve tried looking and I can’t finding anything. I may be thinking that his sister had attended Mo State. I’ll keep looking, I don’t think I made this up, but I can find absolutely nothing to back it up so who knows.

Edit- It was his sister. My bad everyone.

 

[EastonBlues22]

The thought process was:

1. JT is likely to leave the Islanders
2. Islanders hire Lou
3. Lou promises JT that they're going to try to upgrade goaltending
4. If Lou thought that was important to JT, maybe it actually *is* important to him
5. If solid goaltending is important to JT, he might prefer teams in free agency with solid goaltending
6. We don't have solid goaltending
7 JT might skip the Blues because other suitors may have better goaltending

The point wasn't that JT is gonna stay because Lou promised to upgrade goaltending, which is something we can't do (which is absurd). The point is that he may prefer teams that already have solid goaltending.

I mean, JT probably has preferences for a lot of things. Like, he probably prefers playing for a team that doesn't have a **** arena. He probably prefers paying zero income tax to paying a lot. He probably prefers playing with talented wingers and defensemen to not. Etc.

The problem comes when we assume that each single individual preference is actually significant. Just because he has a preference for something doesn't mean that it will actually factor into the final decision on where he signs even the least little bit.

Does he prefer playing with a good goaltender over a bad one? Sure, I'm guessing pretty much any player would. Will that ultimately affect where he goes? I tend to doubt that it's high on the list of things that matter most to him in determining where he lives and works for the next 7 years.

At this point I'd also imagine that the Islanders are grasping at pretty much every straw they can to keep him around, so I'm not even sure how much we can even read into what's happening at the moment. They're in full-blown desperation mode.

 

[Itsnotatrap]

Totally agree that the Islanders are throwing a Hail Mary pass. Might come across as a bit callous, while they have the 8 year offer as a unique lever, Lou Lamoriello is also 75 years old. I have a hard time thinking Lamoriello steering the ship well into his 80’s is going be a game changer for Tavares.

Of course, I could be proven wrong in a month or so on this.

 

[Brian39]

Totally agree that the Islanders are throwing a Hail Mary pass. Might come across as a bit callous, while they have the 8 year offer as a unique lever, Lou Lamoriello is also 75 years old. I have a hard time thinking Lamoriello steering the ship well into his 80’s is going be a game changer for Tavares.

Of course, I could be proven wrong in a month or so on this.

I don't think there is any expectation that Lou will be there by year 8, but it demonstrates that the organization isn't going to just blindly keep Snow in charge. It signals that they are acknowledging a failure of the front office and bringing in people to address that failure. I have no idea how much that will matter to Tavares, but it is objectively a positive step for the organization (assuming you think Snow is bad at his job, which I think is fairly obvious).

 

[Itsnotatrap]

I don't think there is any expectation that Lou will be there by year 8, but it demonstrates that the organization isn't going to just blindly keep Snow in charge. It signals that they are acknowledging a failure of the front office and bringing in people to address that failure. I have no idea how much that will matter to Tavares, but it is objectively a positive step for the organization (assuming you think Snow is bad at his job, which I think is fairly obvious).

More that what the Islanders will look like and function like on the back end of his hypothetical deal is just about as unknown as it was before.

I’m still under the assumption that if it carried on this far, they’re still in big trouble, in other words.

 

[Dbrownss]

I agree with the notion that it feels like desperation. Similar to a failing relationship, one is finally ready to change now that the other has 1 foot out of the door

 

[Brian39]

More that what the Islanders will look like and function like on the back end of his hypothetical deal is just about as unknown as it was before.

I’m still under the assumption that if it carried on this far, they’re still in big trouble, in other words.

I would be shocked if he doesn't hear offers from other teams, but I think that has been clear since the trade deadline. Beyond that, I don't think anyone can predict whether he is just seeing what's out there or if he already has a foot out the door. A lot of people thought Stamkos had one foot out the door when he talked to people and then he took a significant pay cut to stay in Tampa after talking to other teams.

I disagree that the back end of his deal is just as unknown as it's been before. In the past 3 decades, a team led by Lou has had an average or better starting goaltender for about 29 of those years. He identified and acquired such a goaltender via trade twice in the last 5 years. It is absolutely reasonable to assume that Lou will be able to address the starting goaltending issue significantly better than Snow has and his tendency towards getting younger goalies and locking them up right away suggests that it will not be a short term solution. There's obviously no guarantee it works out, just like every team's 5 year plan. But suggesting that the long term outlook under Lou is about as bleak as a long term outlook under Snow with no supervision ignores the track record of both guys.

 

[Dbrownss]

The interview with Strick was on NHL Radio yesterday on SiriusXM. I'm not sure if they archive that audio. I don't have a subscription.

I listened to this, To summarize.

Army will absolutely be all in on JT.

JT is friends with Pietrangelo and Schenn.

JT's wife is good friends with Schenn's GF

JT's sister went to college in Missouri

JT reportedly has a list of 5 times he's interested in. SJ and Vegas are supposedly 2 if them but its unknown if the Blues are or aren't on the list.

 

[mk80]

I listened to this, To summarize.

Army will absolutely be all in on JT.

JT is friends with Pietrangelo and Schenn.

JT's wife is good friends with Schenn's GF

JT's sister went to college in Missouri

JT reportedly has a list of 5 times he's interested in. SJ and Vegas are supposedly 2 if them but its unknown if the Blues are or aren't on the list.

I assume Vegas is at the top of every Free Agent's list with their success, the city, and their amount of cap space currently. I of belief that SJ is pretty much out of the cards after the Kane contract, and having some upcoming contract decisions with their current group, who knows maybe they make a move to open up space for him.

 

[Dbrownss]

I assume Vegas is at the top of every Free Agent's list with their success, the city, and their amount of cap space currently. I of belief that SJ is pretty much out of the cards after the Kane contract, and having some upcoming contract decisions with their current group, who knows maybe they make a move to open up space for him.

I'm hoping Vegas doesn't want to mess with their mojo.....

San Jose can make trades from what I hear. It was just floated that they'll be in on JT still

 

[Brian39]

I'm hoping Vegas doesn't want to mess with their mojo.....

San Jose can make trades from what I hear. It was just floated that they'll be in on JT still

I don't think Vegas is all that concerned about mojo to the point that they wouldn't be interested in elite players. One of Neal or Perron probably isn't coming back (if not both) and they aren't scoring all that much in the playoffs. If Fleury was simply playing like a Vezina candidate and not a God, they might have been eliminated by now. I assume that they are able to honestly evaluate their offensive output in the playoffs and seek an upgrade (even if they win the Cup). 7 of their 12 wins have been by 1 goal and that number jumps to 9 if you include games that were 1 goal margins prior to them scoring an empty net goal. That's living right on the edge when it is combined with your goalie posting a .947 SV%.

I don't mean this as a post to knock Vegas. I just don't think they will look at that and pass up going after an elite talent just in case it disrupts chemistry. With that said, they owe a bunch of large raises in the next 2 years. Tuch, Karlsson, Theodore, Neal, Perron, Schmidt and Fleury are all due raises in the next 2 summers and some of them will be $5+ mil raises. If they don't make a run for Tavares it is because they don't want to pay the cap space.

I think San Jose is in a weird spot. They can fit Tavares next year, but it seems like doing so is going to cause huge roster issues in years 2+. I don't see how they can convince Couture or Pavelski to take less than $8 mil after giving Kane $7 mil x 7 years. They now have $27.75 tied up in Kane/Vlasic/Burns/Jones and I have to think that number gets to $35 mil if they let Pavelski go and re-sign Couture (or vise versa). Add Tavares and you have $45 mil tied up in 6 guys, and you have lost a huge component of your top 6 in Pavelski/Couture. If you extend both Pavelski and Couture, you're talking about $50+ mil tied up in 7 guys before accounting for the raises due to Hertl, Donskoi, Meier or the contracts to any D beyond Vlasic/Burns (3 of their D are due new contracts next summer and 2 more in the summer before the 2020/21 season).

To make matters worse, many people believe they have the worst prospect pool in the NHL, they don;t have 2nd or 3rd round picks this year and they just lost their 2019 1st since they extended Kane. I don't know where the cheap depth is going to come from to replace the cap casualties if they get Tavares. The more I look at San Jose, the less I understand why Tavares would want to go there from a hockey perspective. They'd be the likely favorites out of the West for 1 year, then lose a good chunk of talent. By year 3 of his deal, Burns is 35 going on 36, Pavelski is either 36 or off the roster, and the middle/bottom D is likely very young and inexperienced. This isn't to say that they shouldn't make a push to sign Tavares. I think they're a better team with him than without him, even if it means losing a great player. But I don't see why Tavares would be eager to go to a team that will 100% need to go through a major rebuild/retool when he has 3 or 4 years left on his deal and will absolutely be worse in years 2 and 3 than they are in year 1 of his deal. That's a ton of pressure right of the bat.

 

[Dbrownss]

I don't think Vegas is all that concerned about mojo to the point that they wouldn't be interested in elite players. One of Neal or Perron probably isn't coming back (if not both) and they aren't scoring all that much in the playoffs. If Fleury was simply playing like a Vezina candidate and not a God, they might have been eliminated by now. I assume that they are able to honestly evaluate their offensive output in the playoffs and seek an upgrade (even if they win the Cup). 7 of their 12 wins have been by 1 goal and that number jumps to 9 if you include games that were 1 goal margins prior to them scoring an empty net goal. That's living right on the edge when it is combined with your goalie posting a .947 SV%.

I don't mean this as a post to knock Vegas. I just don't think they will look at that and pass up going after an elite talent just in case it disrupts chemistry. With that said, they owe a bunch of large raises in the next 2 years. Tuch, Karlsson, Theodore, Neal, Perron, Schmidt and Fleury are all due raises in the next 2 summers and some of them will be $5+ mil raises. If they don't make a run for Tavares it is because they don't want to pay the cap space.

I'm just making excuses as to them not getting JT. Because if they did......

We all know if it unfolded like that, it would come out that Stl was a close 2nd choice

 

[Brian39]

I'm just making excuses as to them not getting JT. Because if they did......

We all know if it unfolded like that, it would come out that Stl was a close 2nd choice

I assume that we would learn this from JT himself, who clarifies at his press conference that the inclusion of Perron and Reaves in the Knights organization is what tipped the scales between us and Vegas.

 

[Dbrownss]

I assume that we would learn this from JT himself, who clarifies at his press conference that the inclusion of Perron and Reaves in the Knights organization is what tipped the scales between us and Vegas.

 

[BlueDream]

Pietrangelo and Schenn gonna be hitting up JT's phone like

View media item 2297

 

[67Blues]

I'm just making excuses as to them not getting JT. Because if they did......

We all know if it unfolded like that, it would come out that Stl was a close 2nd choice

 

[mk80]

I assume that we would learn this from JT himself, who clarifies at his press conference that the inclusion of Perron and Reaves in the Knights organization is what tipped the scales between us and Vegas.

That would a Blues moment lol

 

[Ranksu]

Have you guys see The latest Tavares rumour?

 

[Bobby Orrtuzzo]

Have you guys see The latest Tavares rumour?

He’s coming here?!

 

[67Blues]

Have you guys see The latest Tavares rumour?

He did the Ancestory.com DNA test and discovered he's 51% Finnish?

 

[TruBlu]

I'm pretty sure Ranksu was just trolling...............his own people.........

 

[ort]

Well, it's official... Snow and Weight being fired means Tavares is either totally leaving or totally staying.

 

[TheDizee]

taveres will be a leaf or a blue.

 

[Ranksu]