Toronto Maple Leafs: Three John Tavares trade destinations

The Toronto Maple Leafs stripped John Tavares of the captaincy this week, which will spark trade rumors.

Although it feels like Tavares had a strong say in giving up the captaincy, that's a huge blow to a player who did the unthinkable and signed in Toronto. When Tavares came north, it was the beginning of a new era. Although there was hope after Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander were drafted, Tavares was the cherry on top.

We're currently entering Year 7 of Tavares and everything he's done has been fantastic. He's been a great leader and someone who's contributed every night. If it wasn't for a devastating injury he suffered during the playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens a few years ago, we may be looking at this team a lot differently.

We all seem to forget that injury because it happened at a time in everyone's life that was a blur, but if Tavares stays healthy, I think the Leafs win Game 1 and ultimately win the series. However, he couldn't play the rest of the series and the team ultimately lost in seven games.

The end of the Tavares Era feels virtually finished after this change and as a result, should the Leafs explore a trade? Getting stripped as the captain is one of the toughest things an organization can do, so although Matthews is a great choice to become the next captain, Tavares could be more open to moving on from the organization he once uprooted his life for.

As a result, let's explore three potential trade destinations if the Leafs were to trade Tavares.

No. 1: Utah Hockey Club

If the Utah Hockey Club want to make a splash and establish themselves as a legimate franchise, they could use some firepower and Tavares is a big name to attract a new fanbase. He may not be a top-five player in the world, but he's a former No. 1 overall draft pick and a potential future Hall-of-Famer who new fans will recognize.

As we know, Tavares has to agree to any trade that happens, but with the captaincy switch, we'll assume he's open to that, so Utah could be a fun option for him to join. By joining a new organization, he can establish himself as "the man" again and set himself up for his next contract.

With one year left on his $77M deal, everyone knows that he's not going to fetch $11M AAV on the open-market anymore, but Utah could be willing to pay him something close to that. They still have a lot of cap-space and will be willing to spend on a legitimate star to build that city up, so Tavares could get the most amount of money if he re-signed in Utah.

The return that Toronto would get from a Utah trade is not as good as some other team's offerings, but the biggest thing they would gain is cap-space. His salary cap comes off the books after this year, but they could do a ton of damage at the NHL Trade Deadline this year if they had another $5-10M in salary cap.

No. 2: New York Islanders

The Islanders may be strong at centre right now, but imagine the face-turn that Tavares would have if he went back to New York? The fanbase absolutely hates him right now, but if he returned to New York, they would do a 180 and fall back in love with him.

This would be a tough trade to pull off, but the Islanders have two expiring deals that could be in-play. Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmeri are both expring deals who came off a fantastic year, but one of them could be on the table in a Tavares trade. Not only would New York welcome Tavares back, but the acquisition of either Palmeri or Nelson would give the Leafs a much different look.

Both of those players play with more grit, but can also score. They match a style that GM Brad Treliving would prefer to play with and it would bring Tavares back to a place he loved playing. The money gets tricky, so Toronto would potentially have to eat costs, or they'd have to throw in someone like Casey Cizikas, but this would be incredibly intruiging.

If the NHL operated like the NBA, this trade would have probably happened by now but unfortunately the NHL is a much more calm league when it comes to deals. As a result, I doubt anything crazy like this happens, but man it would be an amazing thing to see.