Wow 13+ is a big contact to walk away from.
Wonder what Toronto will do moving forward with the cap.
True, but I feel like the Leafs are maybe a little closer to winning a Cup than the Sharks. Add to that the "hometown/childhood dream" discount, and the amount he'd make up in endorsements, and it's tilted way towards Toronto. Unless you're really, really high on the Sharks, which I can sort of see...at least they did win a playoff round this year, which the Leafs didn't do. But the Leafs young core looks strong, and if they can trade out some of their extra offensive power to get some decent defense, they could break the '67 curse.
The one thing I wonder about is the stereotypical "Toronto media pressure cooker" everyone talks about. If you love the attention, it's great...for example, I'd think Marchand would actually thrive in TOR (or MTL, which has a similar media boiling pot). But I seem to think of Tavares and Bergeron as being cut from similar cloth, personality-wise - strong leaders, accepting the responsibility of dealing with the media, but not really actively seeking it out. I wonder how that aspect of the job is going to work out for Tavares - the moment he goes on an *insert number here*-game scoring slump, 7x11 is going to be shouted from the Toronto media rooftops.