{"id":458836,"date":"2024-12-18T17:13:13","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T22:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=458836"},"modified":"2024-12-18T17:13:13","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T22:13:13","slug":"nhl-rumours-contract-comparables-and-updates-for-toronto-maple-leafs-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/12\/18\/nhl-rumours-contract-comparables-and-updates-for-toronto-maple-leafs-star\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Contract Comparables And Updates For Toronto Maple Leafs Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to another edition of NHL Rumours<\/a>. As the season goes along, contract negotiations continue for pending free agents. The same goes for Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> centre John Tavares<\/a>. There have been new reports and rumours on Tavares’ current contract situation. Tavares is currently in the final year of his seven-year contract<\/a> where he earned $11M per year against the salary cap.<\/p>\n

What’s the Hold Up on Tavares’ New Contract?<\/h2>\n

According to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun on Insider Trading<\/em>, things are moving slowly between general manager Brad Treliving and Tavares’ camp. That doesn’t mean that there is no agreement or interest there, it’s just about the circumstances of the situation. LeBrun reported that nothing is imminent. However, it was made clear that Tavares<\/a> would like to remain a member of the Maple Leafs. It wouldn’t be a shock to see the Mississauga, Ont. native try to win a Stanley Cup and end his career in Toronto.<\/p>\n

The main driver that’s holding negotiations back is the salary cap. Next season, the cap is projected to increase<\/a> from the $88M mark that it is set at now. Under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)<\/a>, the salary cap can increase by five percent each year. Next season, the cap will increase to at least $92.4M, that’s $4.4M more than the current cap. With that, there’s potential for the cap to rise even higher than the set five percent. That could happen if there can be an agreement between the league and the NHL Player’s Association<\/a>, according to commissioner Gary Bettman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Therefore, Tavares’ team and Treliving would like to see what the cap will look like next season before going deeper into contract negotiations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Contract Comparables<\/h3>\n

As a 34-year-old centre known for his offensive production, a few contract comparables line up with what Tavares might receive in the offseason, or even before then. LeBrun name-dropped two players that Tavares’ team could be looking to use in negotiations with Treliving. Those players are Anze Kopitar<\/a> of the Los Angeles Kings<\/a> and Claude Giroux<\/a> of the Ottawa Senators<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a 36-year-old, Kopitar received a two-year, $14M dea<\/a>l this past offseason. In the two seasons ahead of his extension, Kopitar averaged just below a point per game. Tavares has been providing at a similar level in recent seasons. Going into Wednesday’s game<\/a> against the Dallas Stars<\/a>, he’s on pace for 40 goals and 75 points. When Giroux<\/a> was 34 (Tavares’ current age), he scored 35 goals for 79 points. That’s a realistic mark for Tavares to reach by the end of the season if he remains healthy.\u00a0If he keeps up his recent play in this contract year, he could earn himself a contract where he makes nearly $7M annually.<\/p>\n

However, there was one player that LeBrun made clear that wouldn’t be a contract comparable in this situation. That would be former Tampa Bay Lightning captain<\/a> Steven Stamkos<\/a>. Stamkos, who is the same age as Tavares, signed a four-year contract<\/a> with the Nashville Predators<\/a> at a $8M annual price. Not only is that a contract above Tavares’ value, but the signing in Nashville didn’t go according to plan for general manager Barry Trotz.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Luther Schlaifer-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to another edition of NHL Rumours. As the season goes along, contract negotiations continue for pending free agents. The same goes for Toronto Maple Leafs centre John Tavares. There have been new reports and rumours on Tavares’ current contract situation. Tavares is currently in the final year of his seven-year contract where he earned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5141,"featured_media":458867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,4547,4548,4321],"tags":[390,847,499,4667,395,5868,5951,6127],"class_list":["post-458836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leafs","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-rumours","tag-anze-kopitar","tag-claude-giroux","tag-john-tavares","tag-salary-cap","tag-steven-stamkos","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-analysis","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-news","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-rumours"],"modified_by":"Andre Leal","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458836"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458868,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458836\/revisions\/458868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}