Around the NHL 2016-2017

How much cap space do we have after this year? Like I said Bozak + JVR comes out to ~$8.5-9.0 million which covers Tavares. The additional roster spot can be filled by one of our young Marlies forwards. And our big 3 won't be making Tavares money for a while. It is more likely they get bridge contracts after their ELC expires which coincides with the expiration of a Tavares contract. Our boat loads of cap space after this year should cover those raises and give us room to bring in a defender or two. And that is not including any potential increase in the cap.

Maneuvering is required, but if we are to go with the Chicago model, you let go of more expensive secondary players and bring in as much elite talent as you can.

I did a rough calculation in one of these threads not too long ago. They have a ton of space. The definitely have room to add a big time contract like Tavares and then some without killing the cap.

And thanks to the depth of talent in the prospect pool, I wouldn't be too concerned about needing cheap depth players at this point. They'll need to draft and develop well to continue to be stocked after the first round gets through the system to their big deals. But that is a ways off.

It is still key to get a good deal though. You don't want to be paying someone $10+ mill even if they are worth it. That just ****s your cap structure for when the kids get their raises. Because you have to give Matthews more than Tavares.

i've never been a big tavares fan. He's basically spezza. Him with 2nd line minutes wouldn't be all that great.

I don't know. A 27 year old Spezza or Tavares on the 2nd line sounds pretty great to me.

Grabbing Tavares and losing JVR and Bozak instantly makes them a contender. It gives them the capability of three ELITE lines. Sure they'll be a bit shallow on the wing but it doesn't matter at all. It's a guaranteed 3 elite, dominant lines if you continue with a guy like Nylander with Kadri. Pretty much 3 first lines. Think about that. No other team can do that.

D still need to improve but man, that would be tough to beat.

I mean I can't say I'd refuse Tavares but like someone said before, it's nice that the days of hoping for our homegrown guys to come home are over.

hockeylover said:

I mean I can't say I'd refuse Tavares but like someone said before, it's nice that the days of hoping for our homegrown guys to come home are over.

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Of course. But at the same time they're a lot more likely to come over now than they ever were. Still ridiculously against the odds of course, but you know Tavares has to be fed up on the Island. He's incredibly loyal for some bizarre reason but he can't continue this forever. IF he decides to move on, the Leafs are a very very very attractive option for him and this time around, it's not only because of the home town thing. In fact, that is probably secondary. The guy will have a chance to play with Nylander or Marner for the next 10 years. That's better than he ever got on the Island.

I've always loved Tavares. He plays a quiet superstar game. He'd be ideal to sign for the second line.

And the Leafs are no longer in a spot where they need to overpay anyone. If Tavares wants $10m, he can go to the Rangers. Good luck. But if he wants to come home and win as a Leaf, he'd have to play ball and sign for $7m. If he doesn't like it, too bad.

I agree with the idea that McDavid probably will re-sign with the Oilers. As has been pointed out, most players do re-sign with their teams and he might be the loyal type.

As for Tavares, FWIW, he said this last summer when asked about coming home to TO:

“I would not count on that,” Tavares told Sportsnet’s Andrew Walker during an appearance on Sportsnet 590 The FAN Tuesday.

"I think I've always showed my commitment, my appreciation and my desire to play on Long Island. I'd love for that to continue for the long haul," he said. "I think you look at some of the greatest players in the game, they have been able to spend their entire careers somewhere and I hope I'm in that same position.

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http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/tavares-playing-maple-leafs-not-count/

Things change.

If they need to start over, he's not sticking around for that.

Kind of a crazy stat I just heard: the Washington Capitals have gone six straight games without allowing a goal at five-on-five.

And the last player to score on them at even strength?

This feels like the stamkos discussion all over again.

Guys like that tend to stay put.

We don't have cap room for a ticket like Tavares with 3 first line forwards already in the fold.

we couldn't have all those guys and still ice a quality D corps and bottom 2 lines.

They do, but the Islanders are such a horrific situation. They play an hour away from their fans and practice facility in a building that has the worst ice in the league. And they stink.

Not many reasons for a guy like Tavares to stay. Hell there weren't many reasons for guys like Okposo and Neilsen to stay.

I wouldn't hold my breath on Tavares

Elite star players almost never leave their teams, and I felt Stamkos was as close as it gets (and see what happened?) but I can't see Tavares leaving NYI.

Now even IF he does, I am not sure how I'd feel about Tavares' game at this stage of his career, and that I also doubt how effective he'd be if he plays 2C min behind Matthews.

If I can have a choice, I'd rather blow that $$ on a top 3 D.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not holding my breath on the guy. Just saying if he legitimately wants to leave and come here, you accept him with open arms and deal with the other parts of the lineup accordingly. And it doesn't at all affect the contracts we give our kids at this point in their careers.

leafman101 said:

They do, but the Islanders are such a horrific situation. They play an hour away from their fans and practice facility in a building that has the worst ice in the league. And they stink.

Not many reasons for a guy like Tavares to stay. Hell there weren't many reasons for guys like Okposo and Neilsen to stay.

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I know they were a "contender" and NYI is in the basement, but this all reminds me of all the perfectly logical reasons why Stamkos was going to leave Tampa. Management had a huge falling out with his friend, mentor & linemate Martin St-Louis. He and the coach don't like each other. The coach doesn't give him enough ice-time. The coach plays him out of position. They can't afford to give him a huge deal when they've also got to re-sign Hedman & Kucherov. But in the end, Stamkos loved playing there, took a pay cut to keep doing it, and he wanted nothing to do with the pressure of playing in Toronto after spending his whole career in a market where he flies under the radar.

As for Tavares, whatever the situation is with the Isles off the ice, let's not pretend there aren't plenty of reasons for him to stay. The Isles will throw obscene amounts of money at him, he remains the captain & franchise player of his team, he stays in the city he's lived in for his entire adult life and I'm sure New York is actually a pretty sweet place to play when you're in your late 20's with tens of millions of dollars in the bank and probably another $70M at minimum on the horizon for you.

Stamkos had a good team in TB that he'd have been leaving behind.

Tavares looks like he'd only be leaving a shitshow.

I'm not saying he'd leave to join the Leafs, but I think odds are that he'd leave.

If we look at what we have coming free we could fit him in at 8mil per season.

After this year we have Robidas (3 mil), Polak (2.25), Hunwick (1.2), Laich (4.5), Michalek (4), Greening (2.65) = 17.55 mil. All we need to do this offseason is replace polak and robidas and resign hyman, brown and Zaitsev as RFA's. RFA's likely come in around 6 mil above what they made this season, Dermott likely replaces 1 of the defenders for 900k.

So offseason 2017 we have around 10mil before any increase to the cap to add a defender.

2018 we have Bozak, JVR, Leo and Lupul coming off the books as well as Tim Gleason which is another ~18 mil with Nylander, Gauthier, Sosh and Carrick needing to me resigned.

Over the next two offseason we have ~35 mil in cap space coming off the books and probably another 5mil in cap increases (less than 5% per year). %7 in 2017 is spoken for and maybe $12 in 2018, leaving 21 mil for a defender, JVR/Leo replacement if we can't get those internally and leaving space for Matthews/Marner the year after.

Id rather try and get a guy like Thornton on a 2 or 3 year deal this offseason but we certainly can make room for a Tavares if we wanted to.

trujaysfan said:

If we look at what we have coming free we could fit him in at 8mil per season.

After this year we have Robidas (3 mil), Polak (2.25), Hunwick (1.2), Laich (4.5), Michalek (4), Greening (2.65) = 17.55 mil. All we need to do this offseason is replace polak and robidas and resign hyman, brown and Zaitsev as RFA's. RFA's likely come in around 6 mil above what they made this season, Dermott likely replaces 1 of the defenders for 900k.

So offseason 2017 we have around 10mil before any increase to the cap to add a defender.

2018 we have Bozak, JVR, Leo and Lupul coming off the books as well as Tim Gleason which is another ~18 mil with Nylander, Gauthier, Sosh and Carrick needing to me resigned.

Over the next two offseason we have ~35 mil in cap space coming off the books and probably another 5mil in cap increases (less than 5% per year). %7 in 2017 is spoken for and maybe $12 in 2018, leaving 21 mil for a defender, JVR/Leo replacement if we can't get those internally and leaving space for Matthews/Marner the year after.

Id rather try and get a guy like Thornton on a 2 or 3 year deal this offseason but we certainly can make room for a Tavares if we wanted to.

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Yeah, that's an idea that'd pique my interest, moreso than Tavares. I mean, I don't think he's ever going to leave California, but he's at least going to make it to UFA this year because signing him in-season would use up an expansion draft protection slot that San Jose don't really have to spare. So, why not throw a huge 1-2 year offer at him that the Sharks can't afford to match, and see if the combination of more money, a good team and not having to ride into Toronto as a saviour would interest him.

Ilya Kovalchuk's KHL contract also expires after this year, and if he can jump over the necessary hurdles to get the NHL to re-instate him for this year, he'd be a really intriguing guy to throw a huge 1-2 year contract at. Ditto for his SKA teammate Vadim Shipachev, who plays center and has had a few dominant seasons in a row in the KHL.

But any huge, expensive, long-term additions up front should be avoided like the plague, IMO. Chicago may have added Marian Hossa to their Toews & Kane, but Chicago didn't have a William Nylander up front to go with those guys, and we don't have the luxury of signing another core piece up front to the cap-circumventing contract the Hawks signed Hossa to.