Did signing Tavares lead to the Leafs' downfall?

[mm11]

It depends really. Will Tavares lead the TML out of this funk? That's what he is being paid to do right? It's one of the questions the hockey world would like to know. Stay tuned

 

[buud]

Was never of the mindset that Tavares was generational, and knew that he would get overpaid.

But still, I think the current issue is more of a fan issue... fans expecting them to clean-up, make mincemeat of everyone.

He is another piece of the puzzle, and as it has happened many times before, he has not fit as well as planned.

Team sport....rah!... pull TOGETHER!!... rah, rah... blah... raaa...

 

[Whileee]

Nylander is an easily managed issue. He's overpaid a bit, but the real cap issue for the Leafs is tying up over $33M for Tavares, Matthews and Marner. They are good players, but taking top dollar contracts makes it hard to build a contender. The Leafs can trade Nylander to ease the cap and help the roster elsewhere, but that will diminish their scoring depth.

If Tavares had decided to sign with the Leafs for around $9-9.5M, it would have signaled to others that he was coming to win a championship, not to cash in on his good years with the Isles.

 

[Commander Clueless]

I don't think so. Not specifically.

I think signing JT AND everyone else to big ol' fat contracts with no mind paid to defense or backup goaltending might have been a problem, yeah. It's a touch greedy, and the team is currently quite unbalanced, not gelling well, and Babcock to date hasn't been willing to try making adjustments. It's a recipe for a rough patch of games at minimum.

 

[DANOZ28]

leafs focused on goal scoring and not D.

 

[Paul4587]

The Leafs downfall? Lol that’s so dramatic and overblown. They’re slumping. It happens.

I wish the Leafs nothing but failure but the fans on the other side of the fence that put them down every chance they can are almost as bad as the delusional homer’s.

 

[holy]

The Tavares contract got the ball rolling. And for that, I thank him for his services.

And as easy as everyone thinks it is to trade these contracts for decent returns, remember that everyone knows how desperate the Leafs are. Look at the Marleau trade. Might be more fleecing to come yet.

 

[haveandare]

Imo, no. Caving to Nylander rather than moving him for defense, and then spending on a redundant OFD when everyone in the world knew they needed shutdown guys were the issue.

 

[A1LeafNation]

Marner contract. Rest of the deals are fine.

Could have had Marner and a decent back up.

Or

5m winger 5m dman and 1m back up.

Dubas and Marner f***ed up.

 

[Ryan Michaels]

Theoretically the money could be better spent but not on anyone realistically available. If we missed on JT we would've retained Bozak and JVR at his cost, so to answer your question, no.

Having said that Tavares has sucked so far this year, if he's on a decline it could get ugly fast, but not for the reasons listed.

 

[gtrower]

We get that y'all hate the guy. But don't go full I Am Sam because of it.

 

[Chiarelli]

Doesn’t really make a lot of sense but it sure does make a lot of sense

 

[DownIsTheNewUp]

You've got to try and sign a guy like that, but offering $11 million was the mistake.

Stamkos taking 8.5 followed by Hedman at 7.875 jump started a culture in Tampa. Leafs should have tried the same thing and offered JT a "hometown" discount of 8.5 or 9. Would he have accepted it? Probably not. Yzerman was fully prepared to watch Stamkos walk if he didn't take the 8.5. You either have guys who buy in or you don't and if they don't you move on.

 

[2ndGenIslander]

I’m sure Nylander will bring such a great return that’s their gaping defensive problems will be all shored up thereafter

 

[Guffman]

I have no issue with the Tavares signing. As many others have mentioned, overpaying their RFA class and not flipping Nylander was a mistake.

I can’t really sympathize with Leafs fans. Many of them seemed fine with the direction of the team and these contracts (I would be livid if that was my team).

Glad my team doesn’t have greedy players like the Leafs (except Trouba, who was eventually traded).

 

[Legionnaire11]

Most of the excuses listed here for why it hasn't hindered the team, kind of point to why it has hindered the team. "It's not Tavares, it's this other reason... which wouldn't be an issue without signing Tavares"

 

[nbwingsfan]

No. Signing Tavares was not an issue. When you have a chance to sign a Franchise level C without giving up any assets, you take it EVERY.SINGLE.TIME.

The problem is that he didn’t give up any other forwards to fill other holes at the same time.

If you sign Tavares (as you should) then you should be using some of your supply of forwards to fill the other holes, instead of holding onto them.

They could have traded Nylander for Pesce +. They could have even traded him for multiple 1st Rd Picks.

Tavares +Pesce or two 1st Rd picks + cap space

Nylander + Cap Space

Tavares + Nylander + absolutely no cap space or depth or Defense

One of those options seems like by far the most obvious to me.

 

[macleod50]

Not at all. Tavares is a great get for any team, and it was going to cost some change to get him wherever he landed. I do think Toronto should have made Rielly the captain though. He's a good player and has tenure with the club. Dubas not doing a sign and trade with Nylander was the mistake. The "we can and we will" thing really painted him into a corner.

 

[Negan4Coach]

What led to their downfall was the hubris to bogart all those flashy young forwards and not trade anyone to, oh, IDK, the Hurricanes for defensive help. Welp, we warned ya. Muahahahaha

 

[Axel574]

So wait, you think passing on Tavares for Lehner, Chariot and Brassard is What the Leafs shouldve done?? It’s obvious the team isnt motivated, the Islanders are. You think the Leafs would be better if they swapped Kapanan, Mikheyev, Kerfort etc for Komarov, Cizikas, Cluttercrap and whatever else the Islanders have? What exactly have the Isles done to be a model franchise? Get swept by a mediocre team and have a hot start?

Cizikas is better than every leaf player you listed up there by a country mile.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

The results speak for themselves.

 

[qqaz]

22 games in, record is 9-9-4.

"Downfall"

I know that the team is playing bad, and everyone prefers that Toronto be terrible. But this is asinine.

 

[koyvoo]

22 games in, record is 9-9-4.

"Downfall"

I know that the team is playing bad, and everyone prefers that Toronto be terrible. But this is asinine.

They’ve been terrible and playing at pace that doesn’t get into the playoffs for almost a full calendar year now.

 

[Koolboss]

(Obviously as an Isles fan, this thread will be taken in a very rational way by readers...)

There's no question Tavares is a talented player. 47 goals and 88 points last year, 14 points in 15 games this year. It's not really a question of whether he is worth what he's getting paid.

The question is, did the Leafs make a mistake in adding him to their roster, when they really didn't need another high-powered forward.

• Adding Tavares at $11 million per year instantly increased what the younger RFAs would be getting paid on their next contract. You could argue that Matthews and Marner were getting bank either way, but with Tavares as a team comparable, it made it easy for the duo to point at Tavares and say, there's what we will be getting paid. Look at the other big RFA signings around the league, and only Panarin topped them, and most are well below their price tags. This ends up hurting the team depth, as the cap space shrinks.
• Adding $11 million for one forward, meant $11 million less in cap for depth players, defense and back-up goaltending. If they hadn't signed Tavares (besides whatever less they would have possibly paid Matthews and Marner), this past offseason they could have added, for example, Robin Lehner, Ben Chiarot, and Derrick Brassard (or any other number of solid depth additions.)
• For a team that seems stuck in a morass, Tavares is not the captain to raise them up. He's never been a rah-rah guy, instead letting his play speak for him. That works if you've got the character in the line-up to follow an example, but with such a young team, they either needed a big voice or someone who's been the summit. Tavares is not that guy.
• There's a case to be made that Dubas was playing NHL 20 GM in signing Tavares. Loading up on scorers works in a video game, but in reality, you need role players. You need grinding centers, you need defensively responsible wingers and you need physical defensemen. Dubas apparently just planned to win every game 6-5, and when his planned offense didn't materialize, his team sunk like a stone.

The worst thing about the situation for the Leafs, because of all the long-term, high-dollar contracts, is, there's no clear way out. You either have to sell low on players and set yourself back even more, or pin your hopes on a new coach being able to turn players into something they currently aren't, since the players they need aren't on the roster, and there's no room to add them.

No doubt, JT did not make any difference as far the team over all improvement since he signed with the Leafs. 11m could have been used on a decent RHD and third line center. Keeping Kadri would make sense.

 

[Koolboss]

definitely not. what lead to the leafs "downfall" is their gm kyle "mickey mouse" dubas

That GM made the biggest mistake by signing JT, nothing against JT but not what Leafs needed.