Tavares for Horvat. Straight hockey trade

Tavares might be the best C in the game, and definitely head and shoulders above who's conceivably available. 26 years old with 10 prime years ahead of him, shut the front door and get out of town.

It sounds greedy, but I don't think the Canucks do the deal. Horvat's age and salary fits the roster composition much better, where the team is no more than a middle-weight until a bunch of prospects graduate to the NHL in 2-3 years.

Um, I think someone named McDavid is slightly better

Vancouver says no way jose. Tavares is a pending UFA that would never resign in Vancouver, so we'd just lose Horvat for nothing

McDavid is not conceivably available. Ditto Crosby, Eichel, Getzlaf, Benn etc.
Stamkos flirted with leaving, and Johansen was traded, but Tavares is better.
Maybe one day cap space problems and broken rosters invite offers for Matthews, Toews, Kopitar, etc. but I'd rather have Tavares

If you want to quibble with me saying Tavares might be the best C in the game today, I consciously said might just to put him on the same level because there are different dimensions to his game from faceoffs, to a 220lb frame that drives straight to the net, to a guy who keeps it going in bad times and good.

I also turned down the trade of Tavares for Horvat. I wanted to make the point clear that I'm not a moron trying to lower the perception of Tavares' value.

He's one of them, but better than McDavid and Crosby?