Is John Tavares time with the Toronto Maple Leafs almost up?

Last Wednesday, the Toronto Maple Leafs officially named Auston Matthews as the 26th captain in franchise history, as he succeeds John Tavares in the role starting in the 2024-25 NHL season. Tavares had actually held the position since being anointed the honour for the start of the 2019-20 season.

For a long time, many had saw this coming from the Toronto Maple Leafs. After all, Matthews unofficially had become the face of the franchise. Not only was he setting records left and right, his relentless and determined play every night was something his teammates gravitated towards. Therefore, it was only a matter of time before it came to fruition.

In doing so, it just begs the question: is Tavares’ time with the Maple Leafs almost coming to an end?

Since typically, one has observed that NHL captaincy is passed on when the current one is either being traded, leaving via free agency or retiring. It is a more rare occurrence to have it take place while they are still with the team, because it questions their ability in delivering and leading a team.

Is John Tavares time with the Toronto Maple Leafs almost up?

In such case, are the Leafs trying to prepare ahead of time in event of Tavares’ departure via a potential trade for this upcoming season? Nobody really knows, but what we do know is the fact that Tavares has done his best to play his heart out while wearing a Leafs uniform for the past six seasons.

Since joining Toronto during the 2018 offseason with the infamous ‘coming home’ free agency signing, Tavares has compiled 184 goals, 235 assists for 419 points in 440 games played for the Blue and White, trailing only that of Matthews and Mitch Marner for the team lead over that stretch. More importantly, Tavares has been one of the main forces on the Maple Leafs potent power play, notching 60 goals and 137 points, along with recording 32 game-winning goals, ranking second only to Matthews. 

Also, if it wasn’t for Tavares and his OT winner against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Leafs would still not have made it out of the first round in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for over two decades and counting. So the overall impact he has had on the team had no doubt been enormous.

However, at aged 34 by the time training camp rolls around this year, Tavares isn’t getting any younger and has shown some noticeable slowing down in foot speed and production. Just last season, his 0.8 points per game rate was actually his lowest output since his rookie season back in 2009-10 with the New York Islanders. (All stats from NHL.com)

Tavares is still without an extension in place as his contract is set to expire following the 2024-25 season,. If Tavares is looking into a team-friendly deal and accept a potential bottom-six role going forward as he ages, then the Leafs could possibly extend his stay in a Toronto for just a little longer.

But if Tavares is looking for that one last, big, multi-year deal leading up to his retirement, something more along the lines of what fellow NHLers Steven Stamkos and Evgeni Malkin got, then what we are seeing right now is likely the Leafs doing their early preparation of life after Tavares.