News Article: Thorough Tavares FA article (with quotes from current and former Isles)

[isles71190]

So many of you are such p***yES! John Tavares left the New York Islanders because they were run like a Mickey Mouse organization in his 9 years. You are HIGH if you think he was still going to Toronto if they weren’t legitimate cup contenders for the next 5-6 years. Grow the f*ck up you losers.

NOTE: I am an absolute die hard fan since 96’. It’s ok to defend John Tavares!! Personally, I hope the dude scores 50 this year and they go to the Cup. He’s not a snake. He’s not a traitor. The man made the biggest decision of his life and chose home. WAHHHH!!!!

 

[Disgraced Cosmonaut]

Not a bad article. Confirmed that he went from someone committed to a hard task (resurrecting a once proud franchise), to someone who took the easy way out (playing for a team with a ready-made core). I mean, it's a good percentage of millennial athletes leaning towards creating super-teams on their terms; props to Doughty for not doing that. Older fans i know kinda like to see things come together naturally or at least by management planning. This idea that players dictate where and who they play with is not totally original, but has never been more relevant and discussed than it has been over the last decade. For those of us who saw JT as a throwback, this was a reminder that the easy way is in.

I wish that Staple or Gross (or maybe even Brooks) would do a flip side of the coin piece on the obvious reasons for fan ire.

 

[Tres Peleches]

So many of you are such *****ES! John Tavares left the New York Islanders because they were run like a Mickey Mouse organization in his 9 years. You are HIGH if you think he was still going to Toronto if they weren’t legitimate cup contenders for the next 5-6 years. Grow the f*ck up you losers.

NOTE: I am an absolute die hard fan since 96’. It’s ok to defend John Tavares!! Personally, I hope the dude scores 50 this year and they go to the Cup. He’s not a snake. He’s not a traitor. The man made the biggest decision of his life and chose home. WAHHHH!!!!

Nobody cares that he left. It was well within his rights to do so, and choosing to go home is something that I would never blame someone for.

However, what everyone else cares about is that he strung the fans and the organization on for the longest time whispering sweet nothings about how dedicated he was to this team and how it’s the only place he has thought about playing. There were a million ways he could have left and I would feel nothing but anger at the Islanders organization. Hell, if he did the exact same thing and came out and said “You know, I’ve been there for 10 years and the did nothing to help me win” I would have respected him more.

HE LIED AND TOOK THE EASY WAY OUT AND PREVENTED THE ISLANDERS FROM GETTING ANYTHING FOR HIM WHEN THY COULD HAVE GOTTEN A KING’S RANSOM. NOT TO MENTION THE FACT HE PENS THIS BULLSHIT SOB STORY ABOUT HOW DIFFICULT IT WAS AND HOW HE DIDNT MAKE A DECISION UNTIL THE LAST MOMENT AND THEN HIS OWN AGENT COMES OUT AND SAYS “YEAH HE KNEW BASICALLY ON FRIDAY”.

He was our captain. And he ****** us over big time.

This whole meeting with 5 teams was a sham. It was only ever the Leafs and he damn well knew it. He used the Islanders as leverage to get more money.

As a player he has done the single most damaging thing to this franchise since Darcy Tucker or Dale Hunter.

If this is the hill you want to die on, be my guest. But excuse the rest of us for not feeling the same.

I personally hope he scores 1 goal this season and they miss the playoffs completely

 

[beach]

So many of you are such *****ES! John Tavares left the New York Islanders because they were run like a Mickey Mouse organization in his 9 years. You are HIGH if you think he was still going to Toronto if they weren’t legitimate cup contenders for the next 5-6 years. Grow the f*ck up you losers.

NOTE: I am an absolute die hard fan since 96’. It’s ok to defend John Tavares!! Personally, I hope the dude scores 50 this year and they go to the Cup. He’s not a snake. He’s not a traitor. The man made the biggest decision of his life and chose home. WAHHHH!!!!

It’s ok to defend John Tavares!! -No, it's not.

Personally, I hope the dude scores 50 this year and they go to the Cup. -Go live on the Leafs' board.

He’s not a snake. -Yes, he is.

He’s not a traitor. -Yes, he is.

The man made the biggest decision of his life and chose home. - In the most underhanded manner imaginable.

 

[ScaredStreit]

Nobody cares that he left. It was well within his rights to do so, and choosing to go home is something that I would never blame someone for.

However, what everyone else cares about is that he strung the fans and the organization on for the longest time whispering sweet nothings about how dedicated he was to this team and how it’s the only place he has thought about playing. There were a million ways he could have left and I would feel nothing but anger at the Islanders organization. Hell, if he did the exact same thing and came out and said “You know, I’ve been there for 10 years and the did nothing to help me win” I would have respected him more.

HE LIED AND TOOK THE EASY WAY OUT AND PREVENTED THE ISLANDERS FROM GETTING ANYTHING FOR HIM WHEN THY COULD HAVE GOTTEN A KING’S RANSOM. NOT TO MENTION THE FACT HE PENS THIS BULL**** SOB STORY ABOUT HOW DIFFICULT IT WAS AND HOW HE DIDNT MAKE A DECISION UNTIL THE LAST MOMENT AND THEN HIS OWN AGENT COMES OUT AND SAYS “YEAH HE KNEW BASICALLY ON FRIDAY”.

He was our captain. And he ****** us over big time.

This whole meeting with 5 teams was a sham. It was only ever the Leafs and he damn well knew it. He used the Islanders as leverage to get more money.

As a player he has done the single most damaging thing to this franchise since Darcy Tucker or Dale Hunter.

If this is the hill you want to die on, be my guest. But excuse the rest of us for not feeling the same.

I personally hope he scores 1 goal this season and they miss the playoffs completely

It was obvious when he kept saying he was going to stay an Islander forever that he was saying PR 101 what you're supposed to say (and yes I stated this at the time). What else do you want him to say, "I can't wait to leave this organization that's run by a backup goaltender"?

Did he do the team dirty? Honestly he did...but the team did MUCH worse to him over the span of his career, let's not give them a free pass just because we're fans. For a decade he was our best player-nobody can question that. He worked hard every season. He signed an EXTREMELY team friendly deal. He easily had the "best" contract in the NHL for years. He was making a fraction of what he could have made AND gave the team an extra year of term on top of it (he could have been a UFA last summer). How did the team repay him? By giving him AHL caliber linemates (sometimes literally), crappy defense, decent goaltending-at best-laughable coaches and a joke of a GM for his entire career. The season after things were going in the right direction (playoff series win) and they let the 2nd and 3rd best forwards on the team walk...are we really surprised Tavares left? I'm not.

It's ok to call Tavares out...but this fanbase has been so reluctant to call out bad management for a LONG time, hell I used to practically get tarred and feathered for saying that Snow had to be fired years before he was canned.

 

[beach]

It was obvious when he kept saying he was going to stay an Islander forever that he was saying PR 101 what you're supposed to say (and yes I stated this at the time). What else do you want him to say, "I can't wait to leave this organization that's run by a backup goaltender"?

Did he do the team dirty? Honestly he did...but the team did MUCH worse to him over the span of his career, let's not give them a free pass just because we're fans. For a decade he was our best player-nobody can question that. He worked hard every season. He signed an EXTREMELY team friendly deal. He easily had the "best" contract in the NHL for years. He was making a fraction of what he could have made AND gave the team an extra year of term on top of it (he could have been a UFA last summer). How did the team repay him? By giving him AHL caliber linemates (sometimes literally), crappy defense, decent goaltending-at best-laughable coaches and a joke of a GM for his entire career. The season after things were going in the right direction (playoff series win) and they let the 2nd and 3rd best forwards on the team walk...are we really surprised Tavares left? I'm not.

Again - It is HOW he chose to leave.

 

[ScaredStreit]

Again - It is HOW he chose to leave.

What did he do wrong to Lou?

 

[beach]

What did he do wrong to Lou?

What are you talking about? What did he do to your Aunt Bessie?

 

[ScaredStreit]

What are you talking about? What did he do to your Aunt Bessie?

Well my point is I keep hearing "the way he went out", but what exactly did he do that was wrong? IF he told Snow not to trade him (I've yet to see a credible source documenting this-I have seen posters say 'well such and such' reported it, but haven't seen any link showing it) you might have a point. Even then though Snow/Weight weren't in charge on July 1st. Let's be honest the only way Islander fans wouldn't hate Tavares is if he stayed. We can pretend like we'd be ok with him demanding a trade at the deadline all we want-but we know that's not the truth. The team failed Tavares for 9 years. Tavares failed them for a few months. That's all I'm suggesting.

 

[beach]

Well my point is I keep hearing "the way he went out", but what exactly did he do that was wrong? IF he told Snow not to trade him (I've yet to see a credible source documenting this-I have seen posters say 'well such and such' reported it, but haven't seen any link showing it) you might have a point. Even then though Snow/Weight weren't in charge on July 1st. Let's be honest the only way Islander fans wouldn't hate Tavares is if he stayed. We can pretend like we'd be ok with him demanding a trade at the deadline all we want-but we know that's not the truth. The team failed Tavares for 9 years. Tavares failed them for a few months. That's all I'm suggesting.

Apparently, you've been in a bubble for the past year. You can read up on all things Pajama Boy in several of the previous locked JT threads.

 

[sabremike]

Both Staple and Gross reported that he asked not to be traded. That's not just internet gossip.

And to be clear: there are no heroes in this whole saga, everyone looks terrible from pajama boy, management and ownership. The problem is that the total victims in this situation are all Islander fans, and that angers me more than anything because you guys have gone through such unspeakable shit that you are the last people on earth who deserved this.

 

[KidThatWonTheCalder]

Well my point is I keep hearing "the way he went out", but what exactly did he do that was wrong? IF he told Snow not to trade him (I've yet to see a credible source documenting this-I have seen posters say 'well such and such' reported it, but haven't seen any link showing it) you might have a point. Even then though Snow/Weight weren't in charge on July 1st. Let's be honest the only way Islander fans wouldn't hate Tavares is if he stayed. We can pretend like we'd be ok with him demanding a trade at the deadline all we want-but we know that's not the truth. The team failed Tavares for 9 years. Tavares failed them for a few months. That's all I'm suggesting.

As someone else already stated, Staple and Gross both said that JT asked not to be traded at the deadline... So that's that.

Also, we (well, I) would have eventually gotten over it if he demanded a trade because that would've done two things: 1) He would've told us he didn't have an intention to re-sign and 2) We would have gotten a good amount back for him... Instead, we got strung along until the day or so before free agency started and then he left. The article proves further that Malkin/Lou did everything that he asked for in order to stay... Lou said JT needed to assure him that he was going to stay before he went out and gave up assets for a big-time goalie.

This article also shows that JT was uncomfortable with how involved he was with the day-to-day front office/coaching stuff and instead of saying something, said nothing and just went along with it. Given that, it leads to reason that he could have known he wanted to leave and again, just said nothing.

I would've been the first to stick up for JT if he went about this the right way, but he didn't and it kinda boggles my mind that people still can't grasp that.

 

[PK Cronin]

We've spent more than enough time on this guy. There's a new season today, so I'm going to lock this up.