Quoting: dannibalcorpse
See - the reason that Isles fans blame Tavares for that is because it was widely reported at the time that JT specifically asked *not* to be traded at the deadline. They were 4 points behind CBJ for the last playoff spot at that year's deadline and were (amazingly) 5th overall in the league in goals scored - but they were awful defensively. They even made a few trades at the deadline to shore that up, bringing in Brandon Davidson for a 3rd and swapping Jason Chimera's speed for Chris Wagner's sandpaper in the bottom-6.
Most Islanders fans were on board with that plan, since the goal was to extend Tavares in the offseason and trading him away at the deadline would make that pretty damn hard. We all know how that free agency turned out, and we don't need to re-litigate all of that, but it's not like they had their head in the sand over everything.
"Widely reported", such nonsense if any fan believes it. If Tavares was asked with a microphone in his face, what else is going to say in February. "I want to be traded." No player throws his team under the bus, especially when they are in a playoff hunt.
If hadn't resigned, by TDL, surely the Isles management must have known he might be leave as UFA. Heck trade him, and hope to resign as UFA..
Tavares, any player, any GM, any team does not have the reveal the truth in public about their contracts. GMs don't tell the truth publicly often, so a player have to doesn't either.
Now, IMO, players and the GMs should be somewhat honest with each other, but the fact that Tavares hadn't signed a contract before TDL has to tell the Isles....are chances of signing as a UFA is about 3%