In joint pursuit of Stanley Cup John Tavares puts Maple Leafs in position to go

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Its been over 1,500days since Brendan Shanahan took over as Maple Leafs grand marshal 1,539 days, to be exact. While Toronto hockey fans have been waiting on Shanahan and this new Leaf regime to deliver on its stated ultimate goal ending Toronto’s Stanley Cup drought before it reaches a sixth decade the team has taken many leapstoward mounting that summit. And on Sunday, it took its biggest yet by luring uber Kevin Durant Jersey free agent John Tavares away from the Islanders, and are now in a legitimate position to contend for hockeys grandest prize. With Tavares, the Maple Leafs are absolutelyin position to win the 2019 Stanley Cup.If there’sa team in the NHL constructed to “go for it now,”its Toronto. But lets talk about how they got to this point, and the implications behindthe biggest free agent in the salary-cap era, born and raised a Leafs fan, decidingto go home. TRACKER: , which more or le s a sured he was headed toward a divorce with the Islanders. No longer armed with the ability to offer an eight-year contract, even the beefed-up bra s featuring new head coach Barry Trotz and new general manager Lou Lamoriello wasnt enough to woo Tavares. (As an aside: Lamoriello had to play the hand he was dealt after taking his post with the Islanders in late May, but as far as narratives go, his protege Kyle Dubas signing Tavares in the weeks that followed is sure something.) So taking the Islanders out of the equation, it left the Maple Leafs,Sharks, Lightning, Bruins andStars. The Sharks were in it up until the very end, sources close to the negotiationsconfirmed to Sporting News, but pertinent to the script is that San Jose offered $91 million over seven years, or $13 million per annum. Meaning Tavares left $14 million on the table to, , live out his childhood dream of playing for his hometown team. That wont le sen the spotlight on the Mi si sauga, Ontario, native and the Maple Leafs when the puck drops on the 2018-19 season. NHL DRAFT 2018: | Rewind to the summer of 2016, and late June. Tavares became the biggest free agent in the salary-cap era because Steven Stamkos never got there. But like Tavares, Stamkosdid make itto the free agency negotiating window, and took meetings with a handful of teams James Harden Jersey , the Maple Leafs included. But the Toronto pitch to Stamkos, another native son, didnt strike the right chord. In a meeting that included executives from Canadian Tire and Toronto Mayor John Troy, Stamkos was pitched on joining a Maple Leafs team that had just drafted Auston Matthews only days earlier. Some believe the glitz and glam didnt mesh with what Stamkos wanted. Whether it came down to that, or Stamkos desire to Bruce Brown Jr. Jersey stay in Tampa Bay, he didnt leave. But 24 months later, the Maple Leafs delivered a different local kid, persuading him to leave the franchise that drafted him No. 1 overall nine years earlier to pursue a Cup inToronto. Because winning a Stanley Cup is the benchmark for succe s against which Tavares and these Maple Leafs will be judged. With the pieces they have a sembled, 2019 seems as good a time as ever to pursue that goal. MORE: Lets start with the basic dollars and cents. Both Matthews and Mitch Marner will play out the final year of their respective entry-level contracts, and will far out-produce the dollars theyll be paid. Most importantly, Tavares’ contractleaves Toronto with the nece sary cap flexibility to keep the band, and all its key members,together. Tavares’ $11 million cap hit runs through the 2024-25 season and leavesthe Maple Leafs with a projected $13 million in cap space for next year, according to Cap Friendly. That will be plenty to re-up restricted free agent William Nylander before some creative maneuvering will be required to extend both Matthews and Marner. Having a well-stocked farm will certainly help in that regard. But while the Maple Leafs are in this rare position of getting 150 cents on the dollar from players like Matthews, “going for it”is absolutely the right approach. It seemed like the mantra a year ago when they inked veteran Patrick Marleau to a three-year contract. A mixture of youngsters coming in and producing on rookie deals combined with money well spent on veterans seems like a good formula to win under the current cap climate. MORE: Those involved in the proce s should certainly be applauded. The details of what went down over the past 72 hours may leak out in the coming days. Tavares will surely reiterate how he has long D’Angelo Russell Jersey dreamed of wearing a Maple Leafs sweater, of lifting the Stanley Cup on Toronto ice. In that regard, the Toronto bra s had an easy formula to follow, and Tavares’ desire to not only return home but chase an elusive Stanley Cup was evident in the contract he signed versus what he could have made. But now comes the hardest part, because all the good will Tavares will build in returning home, in positioning the Maple Leafs to get to a place they haven’t been to since 1967, won’t last long in the fish bowl with anything le s than a Cup. That journey begins now. Shanahan has helped get them to this point, laying the groundwork to this “Shanaplan” that, in the past four years, has progre sively sped up after starting as a slow grind. Now it’s moving at its highest pace, which should have Maple Leafs fans excited. The notion of Tavares signing in Toronto at a discount just a few years ago would have been asinine, and that’s a nod to all the progre s the Maple Leafs have made in both an on-ice and image perspective. No jerseys on the ice, just eager fans filling Maple Leafs Plaza banging on the fan shop door for No. 91 sweaters. Toronto has been building a winner, and in Tavares, they added a major foundational brick. Now Julius Erving Jersey , the real fun begins.

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