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“If you’re lucky enough to have a John Tavares, you pay for it”
Michaël Petit
“If you’re lucky enough to have a John Tavares, you pay for it”
Credit: There are many ways for a team to improve quickly. One of the easiest ways, if not the easiest, is to sign a free agent, because free agents don’t cost teams anything in return, and we generally know what to expect from them. On the other hand, the free agent market tends to drive up […]
There are many ways for a team to improve quickly.

One of the easiest ways, if not the easiest, is to sign a free agent, because free agents don’t cost teams anything in return, and we generally know what to expect from them.

On the other hand, the free agent market tends to drive up players’ salaries, and most of them want the highest possible salary.

There have been many mistakes in the past, where a player who did well in the last year of his contract was overpaid, but never returned to that level afterwards.

That’s the risk of the free agent market.

Karl Alzner, for example, signed too high a contract with the Montreal Canadiens and was eventually bought out by the club.

In the case of the Habs, we know there’s an urgent need to add a true second-line center to complement Ivan Demidov for his first full NHL season.

And a few players are ticking the habs’ boxes for this, including Sam Bennett and John Tavares.

On this subject, Pierre Dorion mentioned that the Canadiens are ready to take the next step and must overpay in free agents this summer to fill this need.

He said so in his daily column on Retour des Sportifs.

When a club in need of a number-two center sees a player like John Tavares available, it shouldn’t miss such an opportunity.

Still, it’s important to be sensible about the contract on offer, but Tavares could definitely fill the hole at second-line center.

He would also be a perfect complement to Ivan Demidov, who will be able to count on a veteran capable of putting it in the back of the net, even if he is starting to age (he’ll be 35 at the start of next season).

When a team targets a player like Tavares, it’s not necessarily the annual salary that’s important, but the length of the contract.

At 35, you can’t sign him for five years, for example. Logic dictates that the last two years of the contract become a burden on the payroll.

But if the Habs can offer a good three-year contract (in the event that Tavares accepts a contract of that length), they should offer whatever they can (using common sense) to add his services.

A second line of Demidov, Tavares and Kirby Dach starts to make sense.

But one wonders why Tavares would leave Toronto for Montreal.


Overtime

– Interesting.

– He’ll become quite a player.

– What will he do this summer?

– Really?

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