TrueBlueGED

Crosby and Malkin also spent most of their primes saddled with Bylsma :w00t:

Sure, but that's a theoretical exercise. Because of what Toronto has, he's likely to be performing as a top-5 center in the league. Does it really matter if it wouldn't necessarily be the same in a different location?

Tavares' on-ice impact and influence on matchups and how everyone else slots in is not easily measured by points on paper. Look at it this way, Toronto's center spine just went from Matthews-Kadri-Bozak to Tavares-Matthews-Kadri. Their 3rd line center is a 30-goal scorer!

Yup. It's soul crushing that Toronto landed Tavares; the natural reaction is to make it not as bad as it is. But sometimes Occam's Razor really does apply. Toronto just added one of the 10 best centers in the league without giving up a single thing. It sucks.

This is good news.

Eh, when your top wingers are Marner and Nylander (better passers than goal scorers), i don't think so. What matters is the mix up front. Toronto may have an unconventional mix, but I think it works.

They usually don't, but the elite players also don't suffer the dropoff that the good-but-not-great do.

Nobody this season. JVR and Bozak off the books covered almost all of the Tavares contract. Cap Friendly continues to be down, but I think they had like $24 million in space heading into today.

Eeeeehhhhh. His career average is .92 points per game, or 76 over 82. He's had some nagging injuries bring the cumulative totals down, but put him in that Toronto offense? I'd bet he's safely around 80 for the foreseeable future.

Somebody should. Nobody will.

Toronto's D is not terrible. They have a nice collection of top-4 players, even if none of them are a cornerstone stud.

Tavares has been in the league 9 years and has won one playoff series. Sometimes it's not the individual player's fault, ya know?

Maybe we can just smuggle Willie out of Toronto and replace him with Alex before anybody notices. Details are bound to get lost amidst the Tavares euphoria!

Precisely nobody. They're pretty set until next year when they need to pay Matthew$ (you're welcome Pi) and Marner.

I think so, but I doubt they're full trade protection. They're probably of the "8 team no trade list" ilk.

Yea, Toronto doesn't have a standout like Hedman or anything, but I think their group is collectively pretty underrated.

Eh, it's not that much more than he was already making. Around $2 million (cap friendly is currently dead)? All they really have to do is move Palat or Johnson while buying out Callahan's final year. They'll add young assets in such a deal to fill out their depth, plus they have producers on ELCs. Yzerman is a wizard.

Glad he's staying cheap.

This is what we're going to say to make ourselves feel better. But honestly, Pittsburgh just won two Cups without much in the way of defense. Meanwhile, Nashville and their blue line keep falling short. When you have Tavares, Matthews, Marner, and Nylander up front, your D can be spotty.

I hate Toronto. So much.

What, Wedgewood isn't doing it for ya? :p

I think the Isles would be best off entering a rebuild. But that's probably not the kind of thing you do when you hire Lamoreillo and Trotz.

Eh, it's not as if Incarcerated Bob hasn't been wrong before. This just screams "I'm taking an educated guess to build my twitter reputation if I'm right."

I'm holding you responsible for this. By not giving us options, you pushed him to Toronto.

Day 1 of UFA continues to be the day that you look smarter the less you do.