Did signing Tavares lead to the Leafs' downfall?

[holy]

Its bizarre to me how islanders fans mock the Leafs. Like, we couldn't care less about you, you gifted us a guy because of incompetent owners and management, he puts up 47 goals last year, a career high, and we still dont think about you. Have you guys thought about getting a 47 goal scorer? I hear they're good in the locker room.

Lol, tell us how you really feel.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

No. Pretty much every GM in the league would have taken a top 10 center like Tavares. Those guys rarely become available.
The ‘we can and we will’ nonsense that followed was the issue. A trade of any or all of Nylander, Kadri and their 2020 first for a top defensive defenseman, a forward or two with some grit and a decent back up goalie would have created a much more balanced and effective team.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

You guys don't care about us yet you reply to every post we make. It's hilarious and I would take playing winning hockey over having a 47 goal player in the lockerroom. LOL

Got to defend muh guy I guess. You guys should have another JT day I hear he is feeling a little depressed. Maybe give him the key to the city.

Winning hockey being?

 

[NyQuil]

Wow, a little premature to use the word downfall.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

Lol, tell us how you really feel.

Fantastic response. So well thought-out.

 

[McDavidCrushedLarkin]

Tavares was never the downfall, Dumbass and Nylander were.

 

[benedictTavares]

Winning hockey being?

You know that thing where you win more games than you lose.

 

[ThreeLeftSkates]

Yuh broke my heart John Tuhvayriz!!! I loved you. You're dead to me, I never cared for you...SNAKE!!!
My son will neva weya the Tuhvayriz jersey I bequeethed him in my livin will.
I burned it!!!
I love you please come back

The Jersey was not burned, the name was just changed to Goring.
Which has zero to do with this thread. He is only a small part of the Leaf mess. Coaching and the GM have to take most of the blame.

 

[holy]

You know that thing where you win more games than you lose.

Nah, Leafs fans don’t know what that is.

 

[WingsMJN2965]

Tavares signing didn't lead to the Leafs downfall, Nylander's did.

The guy held out until the final hour, and Toronto was still a top 3 offense without him, but he ended up getting more than MacKinnon, Barkov, Larkin, or Ehlers anyways.

Dubas pretty much put up a big sign for Matthews and Marner to read that he could get walked over.

 

[Flyers1928]

Best GM in the NHL ruined their cap, can't even afford a backup goalie

 

[InfinityIggy]

In short, mostly no.

Their downfall is going to be the way in which they handled the contracts of Marner, Matthews, Nylander and the resulting cap situation they find themselves in.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

You know that thing where you win more games than you lose.

Oh, I thought you meant that the Islanders had won something going by your tone. My mistake.

 

[Voight]

When you have the chance to add a player of his caliber, you do it. Every. Single. Time.

Players like him are literally almost never free agents, I can't even think of a comparable from the last 20 or so years.

 

[benedictTavares]

Oh, I thought you meant that the Islanders had won something going by your tone. My mistake.

Well we did it's called a playoff series. But I figured I would keep it simple.

 

[FlameChampion]

I dont particularly think so but I think it did lead to some issues.

1) I think signing Tavares to 11mil a year caused Matthews and Marner to sign similar value contracts. When one guy makes that much on a team, its hard to ask similar type of players to sign for less. But its hard to know for sure that they would of got Marner/Matthews on cheaper contracts without Tavares.

2) I think they needed a better, more realistic plan once they signed Tavares. Dubas was bound and determined to keep everyone together. In hindsight, I think they probably had to make a decision to trade someone. I think trading Nylander before his holdout was probably the right move in hindsight but at the end of the day its hard to really fault Dubas for keeping the talent the leafs drafted.

3) At the end of the day they got everyone signed and made it work under the cap. Things should improve moving forward as the cap goes up, but they are going to have to make some decisions on their back end. Managing the cap is always going to be an issue for the majority of teams around the league.

Overall I think the Leafs are a good team. It takes time to win in the league for the most part. I think people probably just need to back off of the ledge a bit. Things could be worse for the leafs.

 

[sr edler]

Tavares never struck me as a dynamic game-breaking player, but more like a dangerous guy around the net with suspect skating. As some other poster already said in the thread, they could have had a van Riemsdyk guy scoring a big chunk of those goals and kept Kadri. Marner, Matthews, Nylander all got more dynamic promise to their games but with a guy like Nylander you never know if it will happen. Since he's Michael Nylander's son, I would guess it probably won't happen, unless he's traded to a sub par team where he can be a bad team scorer.

Adding more projected offense on defense in Barrie was another full blown mystery.

That's not how it works though. Tavares is worth 11M$ and then some. Remember - he had been offered 13M$ he turned down - and likely could have gotten closer to 14 or more if he went for max money with any city.

What does it matter how much Tavares would have gotten in another city? How does that help the Leafs?

If the Leafs decide to move on and/or make a major change to team - they can trade Tavares away at any time with 0 retention for a top return (prospects, picks, established players - whatever you decide to go for).

Tavares at 11M is an extremely valuable asset in the NHL - and so the Leafs as much better off for having signed him than if they hadn't.

Doesn't he have a NMC?

 

[holy]

Well we did it's called a playoff series. But I figured I would keep it simple.

Damn, why does the guy walking in look like a younger, chubbier Dubas?

 

[Voight]

As soon as Eichel signed for 10 M/year and McDavid 12.5M/year, Matthews and Marner were going to land in between that. (Well, Matthews for sure). EDM/BUF completely changed the RFA market, thats why BOS for example is lucky they got Pastrnak signed before those two, saved them an easy 3-4 million.

 

[KlefDown]

yes. Tavares was a luxury they could not afford to have and they still bought it.

they didn't need Tavares to be successful. Having Matthews, Kadri down the middle would have been fine.

 

[nbwingsfan]

Ok so? It doesnt change the fact the Leafs depth forwards are better. The fact that the Isles put together a nice streak doesnt all of a sudden make them a model organization.

A nice streak? As already pointed out, they’ve been much better for 100+ games now.

 

[kihei]

I liked the signing at the time, and Tavares has held up his end of the bargain very well. In retrospect, he might have been one shiny toy too many. We probably would have been better off signing Kadri and spending the rest of the movey on free agent defensemen. I think Kadri has been a real serious loss.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

Well we did it's called a playoff series. But I figured I would keep it simple.

Congtats on the semi-finals? What a weird thing to brag about.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Those RFA contracts that were so far outside historical market contracts are the biggest issue. The cap limitations the team is experiencing stem more from those contracts than the reasonable (for an UFA contract) that Tavares signed. Every team in the league would pay Tavares that money and shuffle other players to make room, if they could attract him as an UFA.

Secondly is the imbalanced roster, due again to cap limitations that exist because of non-market RFA deals to Marner, Matthews and Nylander. Signing Tavares as UFA should have given the flexibility to trade Nylander, even for a value-lost return would be acceptable if it addressed a team need and balanced the roster better. In other words, cap space is a commodity.

I’m obviously much more well acquainted with my team, St Louis. The GM there gave a recent interview that outlined the front office philosophy to have more depth and lower salary structure. He did mention that he’d willingly pay a superstar superstar dollars. But he said there are only a handful of players in the league in that category. He then made a comment that I took as a direct opinion about Toronto, without naming names. To paraphrase, he said that some teams are paying superstar contracts to players that haven’t proven to be superstars, that they are ‘media creations’ to some degree.

I don’t want to put words in his mouth (this was in the Athletic), but I do think the front office approach between Toronto and St Louis couldn’t be more opposite.

 

[Mr Misunderstood]

Lol saying the "Leafs downfall" is like saying "the New York Islanders are a lock for the Stanley Cup" at this point.