Toronto Maple Leafs should avoid making extension mistake

This past week the Toronto Maple Leafs saw John Tavares hand the captaincy over to Auston Matthews. It was not stripped, it was not taken away, the storyline showed that Tavares recognized that the person to lead the team forward was their 2016 first overall pick.

What it also showed was that the Toronto Maple Leafs had a top notch classy veteran in Tavares who recognized where the team needed to go. Whether this was the storyline the organization pushed or not, either way it shows the former Oshawa Generals captain is here to win a cup.

Since the decision came down to hand the captaincy to Matthews, there have been a lot of talk that an extension for Tavares is in the works and could be very team friendly. The organization should tread cautiously with locking Tavares into a new contract unless a "team friendly" deal is similar to what Jason Spezza or Joe Thornton signed when they joined the organization.

Tavares is a very good hockey player, but that is the ultimate upside of what he can bring to the game at this point in his career. He is top level on the face-off, has a dynamic shot, is strong on board battles, is a battler in front of the net and will likely score you 25-goals this up coming season.

Maple Leafs need to be very careful on a John Tavares contract extension

The biggest reason not to bring Tavares back is to finally break up the "Core Four" and by letting Tavares walk into free agency it would be the simplest way of doing this. However, at the same time any new contract on the former first overall pick of the New York Islanders is going to come in at minimum half the amount he is getting paid right now so being considered in that group of four may be done. There is a scenario that bringing back Tavares for year eight in the franchise makes a ton of sense, but in my opinion they don't need to rush into a new deal.

Any contract extension would not kick in until his 35-year old season and the first skill level that goes on players is their skating abilities and for Tavares who struggles in that aspect of the game already is a reason for concern. This leads many to think that if Tavares does not move to the wing this upcoming season that he will switch to that position by the start of a new contract, which means you want to be extra careful about extending a one dimensional aging winger on a multi-year deal.

Tavares does have a lot of value and could help the team, but he would be going into years where he would be just above a replacement level player, but if he wants to sign a multi-year deal in the range of $2-$3M right now I would be quick to sign the contract. However if the one-time 40-goal scorer wants anything more substantial Treliving needs to hold off and wait to see how the season goes.