If im Tavares id love to be traded for my rights and once it hits July 1st he goes yeah.. thanks for giving my team a boatload of assets and goes back to the Isles.

I don’t think Jake Allen, Ivan Barbashev, and Jake Walman would inspire Tavares to stay in New York, but I guess you never know. Even with giving up those assets, St. Louis is closer to a cup than the Islanders, and I think that’s what Tavares would be more interested in.

The point of signing a 13m free agent is NOT to give up a ton of assets.

You’re not wrong. But you’ve got to clear up some room to do that. Plus, trading for him gives you the option of signing for 8 years instead of seven and you get an exclusive negotiating window prior to July 1. There’s never been a franchise defining center hit the free agent market, so getting JT might require playing by a different set of rules.