If I would build a team to a best-on-best tournament, which centres would I take before him righ now? McDavid, Crosby & Malkin. Those guys are the big three right now. After them it's hard to say, so many guys are in the same tier as of today. MacKinnon, Tavares, Kopitar, Stamkos, Bergeron. Can't really decide who's the best of them. Top-10 C's list is completed with Getzlaf and Matthews, while guys like Eichel, Barkov and Giroux are pushing fot a top-10 spot.
So I'd say right now he's a top-5'ish centre in this league. If he puts up, say 85 points next year, he stays that way. If he were to put up 60-70 points, I'd imagine it would be hard to consider him as a top-10 centre. Lots of moving pieces in the puzzle. Matthews, Barkov, Eichel, MacKinnon and other young guns could be better than him by the end of the next season, if not already. But it's hard to say, we'll see what happens. But right now, I'd say he's top-5 for sure.
Which D-men would I take before him? That's easy. Three names. Karlsson, Doughty, Hedman. I thought about this for a while and asked myself, "which defender would I get in a 1-for-1 trade if I offered Tavares, for which player I'd have to add a pick or a player, and which trade would be bad for me?". For Doughty, Karlsson and Hedman, I'd have to give Tavares+. Because they are better and more important players. Rest of the defenders in this league are less important for their teams success than Tavares would be, if I had to choose between them.
As for the goalies, Vasilevski might be better than Tavares is right now. He's the only goalie I'd rank higher than Tavares in my list of the top players right now.
Wingers is a tricky one. Guys like Ovechkin, Kane, etc etc are all worth a lot and excellent players. I'd say there are like 3-5 better wingers than Tavares right now.
So I'd say he's a a top-15 player in today's NHL. Elite centre, a franchise player. He'll get paid the €11M he's seeking for, and it's a fair deal. He might slip outside the top-20 a year or two from now, but that's because of the extraordinary amount of talent that has entered the league in the past two or so years. Guys like Hughes, Dahlin and Lafreniere arriving in the Big Show in the next couple of years and huge talents like Laine, Boeser, Provorov developing even better, it's not going to be easy for him to even keep the top-30 status five years from now. But today, right now, he's top-15 and a great piece for a team chasing the Stanley Cup.