Honestly, the Leafs haters will disagree, but Tavares is still an excellent player if put in the right role. Leafs did that exactly for years and his next team should keep him on the middle two lines. He works really hard, doesn’t have a spectacularly skilled game but scores a lot and when needed. He just should not be on a first line because of his lack of speed but he’s great on any championship team. Leafs should be very concerned about low balling him because despite the potential to sign for a discount, he’d be a fool to sign below Toews money because he’s far better. He’s still a $10M player to me, but you have to use him on a second or third line.
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