Should the Toronto Maple Leafs Trade John Tavares to Montreal?

The Toronto Maple Leafs will have to make a few big trades this off-season to improve their team but will it include shipping John Tavares to Montreal?

In my opinion, the Toronto Maple Leafs captain played great in the qualifying series, although he only had two goals and three points in five games.

With 24 shots on net in the series, Tavares had chance after chance but was snake-bitten on multiple occasions.

Although it didn’t count as a shot on net, his best opportunity came in Game 5 when he hit the post with an open-net, which could have changed the game and potentially tilted the series in the Leafs favor.

Tavares has an $11 million cap-hit until 2025. In 11 seasons, he’s only advanced past the First Round once in his career.

To put things into perspective, he’s played 814 regular season games, compared to 21 playoff games.

Should the Maple Leafs Trade Tavares?

This is far from a rumor but John Scott had an interesting observation on Twitter surrounding the Leafs captain.

The Leafs desperately need defense, but would they actually consider this trade? (No, they definitely would not).

I have to mention that Tavares has a no-movement-clause, so this trade would only work if he said yes to it, which is extremely unlikely, but let’s walk through it anyway.

Weber is on the books making $7.857 million per season until 2026 (when he’s 41-years-old), his contract is brutal.  Gallagher makes $3.75 million for one more season before becoming an Unrestricted Free Agent.

Let’s look at Gallagher’s stats compared to Tavares’:

• Gallagher’s last three seasons:
  • 223 Games: 86 goals, 149 points (0.67 points per game)
• Tavares’ last three seasons:
  • 227 Games: 110 goals, 232 points  (1.02 points per game)

Gallagher only has one year left at that current number and is expected to get a huge raise, but for one season would you rather have Gallagher and Weber, or Tavares by himself?

Unfortunately, in exchange for that one season, you’d be getting one of the worst contracts in the NHL, and losing several prime years of John Tavares, while Gallagher would either walk after next season, or you’d be overpaying for a 30 year old free agent.

Although Gallagher has 34 less goals than Tavares over the last three seasons, Weber has averaged roughly 15 goals a year in that same time-frame, so he would help the offense too.

Weber has also aged like wine fine. He’s been one of the best defensemen in the playoffs so far scoring a goal almost every night and eating up a ton of minutes for the Canadiens.

As a right-handed defensemen, he would be the perfect fit on the Toronto Maple Leafs blue-line for the next few seasons.

So is this trade too good to be true or is it a fairy-tale hypothetical that doesn’t make sense for either side?  The answer seems pretty obvious.

It’s fun to think about stuff like this, but this is not something the Leafs would or should consider.