No. 1: John Tavares Signing
Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are the flashy superstars, but Tavares has been right there producing a point-per-game level his entire team in Toronto.
Six years have flown by but we have to remember just how big of a deal this signing was.
As previously mentioned, no player ever seemed to get traded to Toronto, but even more rare was a player who signed with the Leafs.
We’d seen players like Brad Richards and Steven Stamkos walk away from the Leafs in previous years and assumed the same would apply with Tavares, but it didn’t.
Not only did he sign in Toronto for seven years, but reports indicated that he took less money to join his hometown team.
Over the past six years, Tavares has been a fantastic captain and leader for this team, doing everything in his power to help them win.
He’s a quiet individual who puts up loud numbers, as he’s seeming a 35-goal and 80 point per year player every season. His consistency is incredible and he’s not really slowing down.
When he signed that deal, we all thought the wheels would fall off by now, but he’s the same guy he’s always been. I know that $11M AAV is a lot of money but you have to make that signing every day of the week and it’s definitely the best move that Dubas ever made as GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs.