No. 3: Pittsburgh Penguins
Kyle Dubas loves to make big trades and Sidney Crosby only has a few years left in his NHL career, so a John Tavares trade to Pittsburgh actually makes a lot of sense.
Adding Tavares to the line-up would make the Penguins arguably the strongest at centre by having Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and John Tavares down the middle, which would be incredible. From a money perspective, this would obviously be tricky as well, but if the Penguins really wanted to get crazy, they could trade Erik Karlsson straight up, but I doubt Dubas would do that.
From a realistic trading perspective, this seems almost harder than any team to make work, but if there was a team or GM that would be willing to make a big splash to save his team, it would be Dubas. Whether it was a first-round pick, a high-end prospect and current NHLer, Dubas could be willing to give up a lot if Toronto was also willing to eat some of the salary.
As much as it would kill every Leafs fan, it would be hilarious to see Dubas trade for John Tavares and Michael Bunting and then lift a Stanley Cup next year and a Tavares trade could be a good start to turn that fantasy into a reality.