Tavares is a UFA, those 3 guys were RFA, you are comparing red apples with green apples here . JT was actually offered a 13 mill AAV contract by the Sharks and he turned that down so he can come home. Now I dont know what the after tax money equivalent of that would be but I do know that he left 14 million dollars of before tax $$ in the table to come here, money that ended up going to Marner's contract after his agent got Dubas to pay Marner almost 2 mill $ (in terms of AAV) more than his worth.
The Matthews contract is 100% on Dubas thou, its like he didn't even wait or negotiate with that, cant blame AM or his agent when the Leafs GM was practically begging to be ripped off.
BTW its not just the Sharks but the Islanders also reportedly offered 11+ mill for 8 years (them being the only team that could offer JT 8 years because they were his original team), highers AAV and more security, yet he chose the Leafs. Their is still quite a big difference UFA vs RFA pay, the former has served their dues and are able to demand higher pay, do you really think Panarin, at his age, would have gotten anywhere near that contract if he still had 4 remaining RFA years on his contract? Skinner would have been very lucky to hit 7 had he been an RFA, dont for one second believe that propaganda spread last year of how RFA superstars are getting paid like UFA now, that may only be true here in Leafland.
