New York Islanders Roundtable: Tavares’ Worth in Trade Market

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Oct 13, 2016; New York, NY, USA; New York Islanders center John Tavares (91) skates with the puck against the New York Rangers during the first period at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /

Eric Vogel

From the Islanders’ perspective, the return would be all about where they think they are right now. Clearly, you’re not in full rebuild because you have high skill forwards like Dal Colle, Ho Sang, Barzal in the pipeline, Beauvillier in the press box and your top D pairing signed for the long term as well in Hamonic and Leddy.

All of that leaves us with trade proposals that resemble the recent one for one trades of Hall for Larsson or Webber for Subban, with the addendum that Tavares isn’t signed long term so the return is probably a less established player under team control.

– To the Maple Leafs for Auston Matthews or Mitch Marner. They get to throw a huge homecoming for JT and have a good chance of re-signing him. We get someone who would slot in nicely next to our young talent. We would have to take on salary to make this work.

– To the Oilers for Leon Draisaitl. I honestly think Draisaitl is on par with Matthews and Marner. Again we’d have to take on salary.

– To the Avalanche for Gabriel Landeskog. He’s signed long term. He’s a wing who can go with all 3.5 million of our centers. We wouldn’t have to take on salary.

One last thing to consider is that if he is traded, there should be no hope that he returns. Tavares has consistently expressed his dedication to the Islanders, but if they were to trade him all of that would most likely be out the window.