Free agent center John Tavares finally made up his mind. And when he did, he triggered a chain reaction that altered the NHL landscape for 2018-19.
Tavares signed a seven-year, $77 million free-agent deal with Toronto, improving the Stanley Cup odds for the long-suffering Maple Leafs. He and incumbent center Auston Matthews will give them a 1-2 punch like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in Pittsburgh.
Tavares scored 500 points in 508 games, the sixth-most in the NHL during the last six seasons. He scored 84 points last season, his second-highest season total.
He became the best unrestricted free agent to hit the market in the NHL’s salary cap era.
Talented young winger William Nylander should play with one of the centers and emerging star Mitch Marner should play with the other. With Mike Babcock coaching the group, the Maple Leafs were already one of the NHL’s up-and-coming teams.
Now with Tavares in the middle of their attack, the Maple Leafs will rank with the Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and defending champion Washington as Eastern Conference favorites.
“I believe this team’s got such a great opportunity,” Tavares said at his introductory news conference in Toronto. “All seven years are a window to win. You start to get all those emotions coming, it really just feeling right.”
ON THE FLIP SIDE
The New York Islanders were already Stanley Cup long shots despite hiring two Cup winners to run their show, general manager Lou Lamoriello and coach Barry Trotz.
But losing Tavares to the Maple Leafs pushed this franchise back to square one. It can build around young star Mathew Barzal and skilled forwards Jordan Eberle, Anders Lee and Josh Bailey. But without Tavares it could take the Islanders years to reemerge as a serious threat.
The initial Islanders response to losing Tavares was signing depth forwards Valtteri Filppula and Leo Komarov. Those additions did not make their journey back to relevance any shorter.
THE DOMINO EFFECT
Tavares accepted in-person pitches from the Islanders, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Boston, Dallas and San Jose at agent Pat Brisson’s office in Los Angeles.
His did not want to hear from St. Louis. So the Blues got busy on other fronts, signing winger David Perron and center Tyler Bozak in free agency and swinging a blockbuster trade with Buffalo for center Ryan O’Reilly.
The Leafs let Bozak exit as a free agent while creating the salary cap space to woo Tavares. The Vegas Golden Knights let Perron leave and targeted Paul Stastny, the second-best center behind Tavares in free agency.
Teams jilted by Tavares, including the Montreal Canadiens, focused on O’Reilly instead. He scored at least 55 points in each of his last six full seasons. O’Reilly is also one of the better defensive centers in the game.
The Blues won that bidding by offering supporting cast forwards Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka along with young forward Tage Thompson and first- and second-round draft picks.
By adding O’Reilly, Bozak and Perron to a team already featuring Vladimir Tarasenko, Brayden Schenn, Jaden Schwartz, Alexander Steen and Robby Fabbri, the Blues became one of the more dynamic teams in the Western Conference.
After falling just short of the playoffs last season, the Blues should be in the thick of the 2018-19 battle.
ELSEWHERE IN THE LEAGUE
Another team Tavares refused to speak with, the Philadelphia Flyers, bolstered their offense by signing winger James van Riemsdyk. He was another player the Maple Leafs let walk to create cap space for Tavares. He scored a career-high 36 goals for Toronto last season and 136 goals over the past five seasons.
Meanwhile the Sharks cleared salary cap space for Tavares, but fell short in the bidding despite reportedly offering him $91 million over seven seasons.
Winger Ilya Kovalchuk landed with the Los Angeles Kings and winger James Neal signed with the Calgary Flames. So there wasn’t much left in the free agent market to give the Sharks additional firepower.
Teams looking to make a big offensive splash will now eye Ottawa defenseman Erik Karlsson and Columbus winger Artemi Panarin in trades. Both players are a year removed from unrestricted free agency and neither has come close to signing a contract extension where they are.
