A few years ago, we saw Brad Richards take a $2 million deal to go to Chicago in hopes of winning a Cup. This was basically all they could pay him to stay under the cap. He reportedly turned down more money from other teams to give himself the best chance to win. And that was a guy who already had his name on the Cup (probably wanted to win it legitimately).
If the Sharks were offering Tavares $13 million, as rumoured, Thornton would have had to take a big pay cut if he wanted to stay in San Jose. The math doesn't work otherwise.
Right now, they have just over $8 million in cap space. If they had signed Tavares for $13 million, they simply wouldn't have had the space for the deals that Hertl and Thornton signed on Monday. They likely would have needed to sign Hertl to a lower-value one year deal (and give him the longer extension next year after Pavelski's contract ends), and give Thornton much less money than they did.
If the Sharks had signed Tavares, they would have become instant favourites to win the Cup next year. That possibility was probably enough for Thornton to be willing to sacrifice a few million dollars (easier to do for someone who has already made over $90 million in his career). Now, there aren't any other players on the market that the Sharks could acquire who would move the needle in the same way that Tavares would have, so Thornton might as well take the money.
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