Quoting: Richard88
Kadri 2020 playoffs: 9 goals + 9 assists (18 points) in 15 games, including 5 GWG's.
For all we know, Kadri these playoffs may have been a total outlier. His whole career he has been not much of an impact guy (partially because of the costly suspensions maybe). Even this regular season, he only had about 20 goals/36 points.
Quoting: Richard88
Keep in mind that in a cap league the comparison isn't just Tavares vs Kadri... it's Tavares vs Kadri + $6.5m capspace (eg. that's equivalent to Landeskog+Graves this season, or Landeskog + an ELC like Makar/Kaut). So again, I take the Kadri contract any day of the week on this Colorado team.
What will Kadri's extension look like when he's 32? Factor that into the cap difference as well, because we'd have had to sign him as well, if we'd kept him. Tavares on a bad day produces gobs more offense than Kadri ever could. The only time Kadri was above average was when he played 2 seasons with marner, who ironically seems to give every centre he plays with a career year lmao
Kadri might be a better fit in Colorado, but the idea that signing Tavares somehow hurt the team is silly. Kadri's production most years was replaced by Kerfoot (who had a god awful injury plagued year this season, I expect a bounce back from him). Barrie was an utter bust. I wish that trade never happened, but like... I would take John freaking Tavares at 11m for 5 years on my team every single day of the week over Kadri at 4.5 for 2 more.
Also, as was said above, if the cap had gone up, the leafs would've actually been totally fine. Even in a flat cap scenario, they can still make it work, while maintaining the one-two punch of Matthews/Tavares. The idea was Tavares' contract got better every year as the cap increased. It's tougher with the flat cap, but the guy is still a franchise centre and a superstar.