John Tavares taking matters into his own hands
He couldn’t sway the NHL into letting him enter the 2008 draft, so now he’s turning pro on his own.John Tavares cannot play in the NHL until after the 2009 draft, and only for the team that has his rights. However, no such rule exists for the AHL.
This was reported in the Toronto Star:
http://www.thestar.com/Sports/NHL/article/270412
In the article, Tavares has 3 options:
1. Sign a one year deal with the Marlies (for 08-09) and play in the NHL the year after.
2. Sign a Multi year deal with the Marlies. After being drafted, the Leafs would trade his AHL rights to whatever team drafted him (there is no transfer agreement between the AHL and the NHL, so a team could play him without needing his AHL rights)
3. Sign him to a giant 3 year deal with the marlies. He plays 3 years there, and then after 2 years without an NHL contract (after being drafted) he becomes an unrestricted free agent.
The Leafs would prefer option 3 or 2. John Tavares would probably prefer option 1, however option 3 could be made to work.
Lets look at 1 and 3 closer.
1. A one year, 1 million dollar contract. Making more than he could in Junior. He gets valuable pro experience, then jumps into the NHL in 09-10 and gets paid a maximum of 3.5 miion(including performance bonus’s) Thats a total of about 12 million dolars over the next 4 years.
3. A 3 year 30 million dollar contract. He doesn’t break into the NHL until he’s 20, but he plays 3 valuable years in the AHL(making way more than he would in the NHL). and then he gets league maximum as an unrestricted free agent of 10mil+. Thats a total of 40 million dolars over 4 years. In this scenario he never has to leave Ontario, and is a sure shot Calder Trophy winner.
So what would you do? Take 40 mil over 12 mil, and play in Ontario for the next 3 years. Or take less money, move around, but get to the NHL 2 years earlier.
If I’m John Tavares, I like option 1. He’ll get lots of marketing money anyway, and for an 18 year old kid, 12 million is still a lot of money. And if you were that good, would you want to cheat yourself out of 2 years you could be playing with the best players in the world?
This situation gets more interesting once teams get involved. If I’m the Rangers see the Leafs offering 10million per year,I may jump in with 12 milion. This could very closly resemble the Dice-K incident in Baseball.
96 Responses to John Tavares taking matters into his own hands
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The Leafs own the Marlies, so if they signed him, it could be seen as tampering.
Well, Richard Peddie owns the Marlies, who is also President of the Leafs.
yeah, and Ovechkin was born on September 17. Also, the Panthers used a humerous ploy, they said that because of the Leap year, it add's 1/4 of a year to your age, which made Ovechkin 18 before his actual 18th birthday.
i think this is a ploy by MLSE to draw attention away from the team itself and to have people talk about this possibility instead of the team's struggles.
its almost impossible for this to happen, but why not stir the pot as it beats having your team destroyed in the papers.
First John Tavares breaks Gretzky's record. Now he is looking to break AHL, NHL, and child labor laws. Is there any stopping him?? All I can say is that if he signs with Toronto there will be even more Canadian Pedophiles attending the games.
18 by Sept. 15th, which Tavares will not be.
How did you possibly think the age limit is 20. The AHL is where NHL teams send their prospects if they don't go back to Junior. So many players are drafted at 18 and immediately sent to the AHL.
Un-*****ing-believable. You moronic Leaf fans, seriously, give your goddamn collective heads a shake. Are you all robots programmed by the Globe and Mail? Things were starting to get better around here, with only a few Leaf fans claiming that Toronto was "God's team", and now you're all jumping on this complete BS story!
First off, in the article itself (if you read to the end) Tavares' agent denied any talks took place. He later said that they talked, but there was no negotiation whatsoever. In other words, this is from the Leafs camp, not Tavares', he isn't actively looking for ways he can play for Toronto.
I have not seen anything, anywhere implying that Tavares would ever pull a Lindros and refuse to play for anyone but the Leafs, which you all seem to be stuck on. This whole story was the Globe and Mail and the Leafs, not Tavares. The kid is going to play in the NHL as soon as he can, he isn't going to wait a couple extra years just so he can play for the Leafs. He feels he's ready for the NHL as early as next season, he wants to be drafted and get to the NHL as soon as possible.
As for him being a whiner for wanting to be draft eligible early, the kid scored 72 goals last year. He'll likely put up more goals this year, but it isn't going to be overly beneficial for his development, and especially not another year after this. His progress will stagnate if he keeps playing against junior competition year in and year out. So yes he does have a good reason to want to be drafted a year early.
Honestly, I thought most of you were smart enough to see through this crap, I was actually shocked to see the number of comments of people actually taking this seriously. I guess I gave you all too much credit.
When an article about Detroit comes out it gets 4 comments when a Leafs article comes out it gets 100, so obviously most people find the leafs a more interesting topic, sorry Chanman.
It wouldn't be seen as tampering according this which I took out of a Globe and Mail article:
"Purely from an NHL perspective, if the Marlies sign Tavares to a one-year deal before he became eligible for NHL play, it would be no issue for us," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Canadian Press.
He would draw crowds to Ricoh where they don't get a ton of fans. But for him to become a leaf guaranteed, he'd have to refuse to play for the team that drafts him and wait to become a UFA in 2011, which is highly unlikely.
John's a good kid though, either his uncle or dad coached my brother in Oakville rep Lacrosse
Ok?!?!
Its about the leafs because its speculated that Ferguson is making an offer to him. Plus he's from Oakville, and grew up a leafs fan. I hope that answers your "why the leafs" question.
You're an idiot punk_habs.
You're such a sweet kid Archion.
I've got a question too:
Why all the "why Leafs" questions?
If that's the case, the Toronto Star really blew this story. Not good.
neat news…but wow
leaf fans are getting really annoying now
1) all these articles are so repetitive……
"move mccabe"
"trade kubina"
"raycroft this…toskola that"
2)7 out of the last 10 articles are about the leafs…..oh sweet jesus
3)this article just pushed it…..like….leaf fans are talking like theyre surpirsed people are pissed off
i understand ur being fans of ur team…..but like……..wow
u won tonite against the pens….your officially a 500 hockey team…..and in a playoff position…..stop crying
ps…steen got me 3 points tonite…………and from what i saw on spector…thers a couple of teams interested in his services (NO WAY….a REAL rumor hahaha)
im with u on this one
florida tryed to get ovechkin a year early
the fact that we all know that the big teams would pay THAT kind of money to a 17 year old scares me……..
it tells u the state of the league at that point…..which is based on greed
its sad to see that a game with this much grit and skill can go from a mans sport to that
sure…its the reality…u gotta live with it………but thats the sad part….we all live with it and we accept it
thats wat i learned in sociology today 🙂 hahaha
Why?
Then don't read. This was a major story this afternoon, based on a report in the Toronto Star and was discussed extensively on the Fan 590. Don't like it? Well the internet is full of many other websites, about 4 billion I last heard.
ur sounding like a dam school kid trying to call the jungle gym for recess
cuz i am haha
"dont read if u dont want to" :p
How about he doesnt have to because he isn't the GM?
lol, seriously? THATS F*ING AWESOME. aahaha.. leap year.
Don't act like you're mature. You're as immature as they get, as are some of the other Leaf haters on this site.
Just to give you a few more names os Kids who were expected to be this good, Lindros, Daigle, Esposito, Bonk.
Nope, if the player is under 20, he must go back to Junior.
HOWEVER, I have learned that rule only applies to drafted players. So an 18 year old can sign with an AHL team, as long as he wasn't drafted by an NHL team.
Are you kidding me? This kid is the most impatient kid I have ever seen in my life. The rules are the rules, they won’t make exceptions for one kid and why should they? Just play another year in the friggin minors and you’ll only get better! I hope if this kid tries to cheat the system that he ends up as a bigger bust than Alexandre Daigle!
This story seems as boring and repetitive as the Malkin story last off season! They cause so much trouble by breaking the rules and fans support these kids! Some of the things that goes on in this league is starting to make me sick, just go with the flow instead of jumping the gun and you’ll be fine! Man I swear, I hope this kid gets laid out in his first game if he cheats out of the draft!
Staying in the minors for another year won't make him any better. He's far and away the best player in the league, and continually playing against players far inferior to him can only slow down his progress, not speed it up. All the rumors about him cheating the draft to play with Toronto are downright ridiculous, and would make for a great laugh if so many Leaf fans weren't so fully buying into it. However, for the good of his development as a player, he really needs higher competition. The only two real options seem to be the AHL and Europe. I'd bet he ends up in Europe because of all the potential tampering charges that can arise from him playing in the AHL for an NHL affiliate team.
Seriously, don't just saying that he won't sign with any other team, come up with something where he actually said that, or even alluded to that possibility. There's nothing; that's 100% a pure Leaf pipe dream. It isn't going to happen.
If he has to choose between playing in the NHL and playing for the Marlies for a lot of money, the kid will take the NHL route. There is not a single player in juniors right now that, given the choice, would turn down the chance to play in the NHL right away. The money thing comes afterwards, not to mention he'll probably be getting a good bit of money in endorsements anyways.
"as immature as they get" eh
look at ur name…..a little childish?…..
like i stated in my first comment…….leaf fans are just being fans of their team………no one hates the team, its the fact that theyre talked about on this site like they are contending for a cup
people arnt "leaf haters"…..theyre leaf FAN haters…most of them(cuz there are some realistic guys on this site) are just repetitive in wat their complaints are and wat they write about
i dont think sidney crosby got any worse by staying anuther year
Boys, let's behave. It's October with 8 more months of hockey to look forward to. You should be happy.
Tavares isn’t going anywhere. The AHL commissioner said there is literally a zero chance of him going pro early because it takes a 2/3 vote from the AHL board of governors. Why would they positively vote for 1 team to get a huge advantage over the entire league? It won’t happen!
yes mother haha :p
So automatically, one future star on the team almost guarantees the stanley cup?
Do you think Washington is almost guaranteed a stanley cup with Ovechkin (a team with a lot of offensive talent)?
Are you nuts? You don't think a team would take the kid and trade him to the leafs and reap the benefits like that? Do you remember the compensation for Lindros? If this guy is that good, then the first team that can take him, will. Its got nothing to do with screwing the leafs, it's all about getting the value they deserve out of him.
If Mac T WAS the GM of the team, he wouldn’t do something retarded like sign a 17 year old to play in the ahl one year before the NHL. Maybe mrs. tavares should have had her baby ripped out 4 days earlier so baby could get drafted into the NHL 1 year sooner.
stoll was drafted by the flames, did not sign and so the oilers drafted him him. but never heard of a player drafted by a team, did not sign so he became a UFA. makes no sense.
Hell, the way the leafs are playing these days they will probably end up with the top pick to get him anyway.
I think Big Daddy would be a more suitable name.
What if Crosby had to have come back for one more year after what he did play. And, I could be wrong about this, but I believe Tavares has already played more years in the CHL than Crosby ever did, and now he's got to go back for another year. There's a point at which a player just cannot develop any further playing against severely inferior competition. Tavares has already put up a 70+ goal season, what more is there for him in junior if he plays for another two years?
Tavares' agent denied all of this stuff.