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More changes could be happening soon for John Tavares and the Toronto Maple Leafs following another letdown performance in the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. Toronto has already fired Sheldon Keefe after five seasons together and the Maple Leafs replaced him right away by signing former St. Louis Blues head coach Craig Berube.
With the head coaching position now fulfilled, most Maple Leafs fans have their eyes on the situation involving forward Mitch Marner, who only has a year left on his current contract with Toronto. Trade speculations centered on Marner haven't slowed down and it's only gotten louder of late, even though he was recently seen inside a coffee shop with Berube.
While uncertainty continues to swirl around Marner, there is also another key Toronto player being followed by trade murmurs, with veteran John Tavares speculated by some to potentially be on the move soon. But like Marner, Tavares, who will be earning $11 million in the 2024-25 NHL season, has a No-Move Clause on his contract. That being said, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic has recently noted that Tavares doesn't seem to have any intention of waiving his NMC.
“Speaking of the Leafs, there’s been no conversation between them and John Tavares’ camp, led by agent Pat Brisson. But either way, should the Leafs ever ask, Tavares — a 2025 UFA with a full no-move clause — doesn’t want to waive to go anywhere.”
Even if the Maple Leafs managed to convince Tavares to waive his NMC, he might only agree to such a scenario if he goes to a contender. That also doesn't assure Toronto that they would be free of any financial obligation to Tavares, as a potential landing spot ask Toronto to pay a chunk of his $11 million salary. It is perhaps likely that Toronto will end up living out Tavares' final season or revisit his trade potential near the deadline.
John Tavares with Toronto
Tavares will be turning 34 years old in September but he still has some to bring to the table offensively. The former No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 NHL Draft by the New York Islanders scored 29 goals to go along with 36 assists for 65 points in the 2023-24 campaign. That point total is 15 fewer than what he had a season before, but Tavares still checks out as an effective skater for the Maple Leafs, who went 46-26-10 this season.
In the 2023-24 season, Tavares posted a 60.1 CF% — the second-highest of his career in a single season and the highest ever during his stint so far with the Maple Leafs. That's not to mention that he extended his streak of 100.0 or better PDO seasons to 11 seasons after coming away with a 101.1 PDO this campaign.
So far in his career in Maple Leafs uniform, Tavares has accumulated a total of 184 goals and 235 assists for 419 points. In 38 playoff games with Toronto, Tavares, who inked a seven-year deal worth $77 million with the Maple Leafs in 2018, only has 12 goals and 12 assists.
Maple Leafs' have lots of decisions to make in the offseason
Marner and Tavares aside, the Maple Leafs have a lot to deal with in the offseason involving players with expiring contracts. They have a number of pending restricted free agents, including Timothy Liljegren, Connor Dewar, and Nick Robertson, per CapFriendly. Toronto also has a bunch of looming unrestricted free agents. Among them are Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, and Ilya Samsonov.
