Been reviewing the main boards discussions about this topic this morning and have come to the conclusion that we have a pretty solid chance at this, pretty much as solid as any other team not named the Islanders.
What I’ve determined to be considered success, indifference, and failure.
Success - obviously he signs with us.
Indifference - he signs with the NYI.
Failure - he signs with someone not named STL or NYI.
If he is going anywhere but here I’m ok with the Isles because that makes sense. If he goes to a free agency competitor that’s going to be very disappointing that we weren’t able to pitch a strong enough sale to him.
I don't really agree with this. We can make as good of a pitch as any team from a hockey perspective, but this is a decision that will take more than hockey into account. Maybe he has fallen in love with the ocean and spends every day meditating on the beach. If he thinks that's a vital key to his career success, our pitch doesn't matter all that much because an ocean is something that we just can't offer.
At the end of the day, Tavares has a list of places he would be willing to go. Not everyone on that list is equal and he almost certainly has favorites. It's completely realistic that we could offer the absolute best pitch of any team from a hockey/dollars perspective but he goes somewhere else because he prefers the aspects of the city/lifestyle that we can't offer.
I have zero doubt that Army is going to make a damn good pitch. I think our monetary offer will be on par or better than the offers from other teams who can surround him with talent. Tarasenko is as good as any line mate that he might be able to play with. Our prospect pool is impressive and I don't think any team can match our combo of established talent and upcoming prospects. St. Louis has a great alumni group and a reputation for being a place pro athletes like. If he signs with a rival suitor, I think it will simply be because they were able to offer something that we just couldn't, not because we failed to make our best possible offer.
I was born and raised in St. Louis. I loved my time in St. Louis but I now live in Colorado. I get homesick at times, but I love the mountains and the place I live. I could absolutely continue my career path in St. Louis or Colorado without much difficulty. I'd take a small pay cut to come back to St. Louis, but it would be drastically outweighed by the huge reduction in cost of living from my current location. When I graduated law school, I considered jobs in St. Louis and Colorado. I ended up taking a job in a mountain/river town 3 hours away from Denver (where I was living) instead of coming back to St. Louis. I have less purchasing power than I'd have in St. Louis, but the draw of the mountains and 300 sunny days a year outweighed that. There was nothing those St. Louis employers could have reasonably offered to sway my decision. That's not a failure of those employers, it's just a reality of what I was looking for as a 27 year old.
If I'm not wrong he's Canucks fan.
