Tavares, despite being in his prime, is in a pretty weird spot.
The safest way (and realistically most likely option) is to take a long-term contract that would bring him close to his 35th or 36th birthday.
But if he really wanted to maximize his career earnings, which would require the risk of injury or declining, probably the best option is to take a mid term contract that brings him to 32 or 33.
We've seen with players like Burns that teams are not afraid to offer insane contracts to that bring players to their 40th birthday as long as they get a couple years before the players 35th birthday. It is far less likely that a player receives 'substantial' contracts after their 35th birthday.
So I think Tavares' camp has to ask themselves if this will be his last "big" contract or if it would be smarter to separate into two big contracts.
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