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Toronto Maple Leafs: Four Potential Off-Season Targets

By Neal DeRosa

TORONTO, ON - JANUARY 31: John Tavares
TORONTO, ON - JANUARY 31: John Tavares /
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NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 19: John Tavares #91 of the New York Islanders celebrates a second-period goal by teammate Anders Lee #27 (not pictured) against Devan Dubnyk #40 of the Minnesota Wild at Barclays Center on February 19, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Paul Bereswill/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 19: John Tavares #91 of the New York Islanders celebrates a second-period goal by teammate Anders Lee #27 (not pictured) against Devan Dubnyk #40 of the Minnesota Wild at Barclays Center on February 19, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Paul Bereswill/NHLI via Getty Images) /

John Tavares

This list has to include him. Meetings are well under way as NHL teams give a pitch in order to  convince John Tavares to join their team. Luckily, the Toronto Maple Leafs are still in the mix.

There are not many opportunities to add a player of this calibre through free agency. With many other teams also interested, this fanbase can only hope that Tavares decides to come home on July 1st.

What does John Tavares bring to the Toronto Maple Leafs

I will keep this short as I don’t think I need to sell John Tavares to anyone. He has scored at a rate higher than 0.8 points per game in every season except for his rookie year. He has achieved this despite his having inferior linemates over his career including P.A Parenteau, Josh Bailey, Matt Moulson and Kyle Okposo.

Tavares would make the Toronto Maple Leafs the hardest team to match up against. Last season, Auston Matthews lead the league in level of competition faced on the road at 5v5. With Tavares in the lineup, teams would have to think twice about giving Tavares inferior competition. I would expect Tavares’ line to see a large amount of offensive zone starts, as this is what Tavares is used to. When comparing to past Leafs teams, this new “sheltered” line would not be as prone to getting pinned into their own zone. While Tavares’ defensive game is far from elite, he is a big upgrade to Tyler Bozak in this department (and every other department).

How can the Toronto Maple Leafs acquire John Tavares?

There have been many rumours floating around that the Leafs could get creative regarding Tavares’ contract. The Leafs have ample amount of cap space and could potentially offer Tavares a one year deal before looking to extend him long term. While many fans might worry about how this contract could negatively impact Matthews, Marner and Nylander, I am not concerned.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have a number of players (Zaitsev, Hainsey, Marleau, Martin, Hyman) who they can look into moving before they consider trading one of the big three. Franchise players don’t grow on trees (just ask the 2004-2015 versions of Leafs Nation), and the Leafs could potentially have two of them.

Just sign with Toronto John.

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