In certain situations, it’s hard to differentiate between the feelings of guilt and loyalty.
But John Tavares cannot let guilt influence him one bit while making the biggest decision of his professional life in the next few months. Just because the Islanders have bent over backwards to try to accommodate their captain and keep him from reaching unrestricted free agency on July 1, he shouldn’t feel bad about that.
In no way did Tavares ever hold this franchise hostage, like so many other stars in his position have done.
Instead, he was handed the keys by those in charge and now he is driving the organization in the manner that he sees fit. That is to say, he’s in no rush to make a decision that could drastically change the course of his career and the course of the only NHL franchise he has ever known.
This upcoming contract is set to be the life-changer for Tavares, who will have turned 28 by the time it begins next season. If he feels the alluring pull of a fresh new start somewhere else, it would be harmful for him to be dragged back by the idea that him leaving could get general manager Garth Snow and coach Doug Weight fired. As cold as that might sound, it’s the truth.
Snow continues to be in charge of one of the longest rebuilding processes in modern sports history, and he is the one who decided there would be no ultimatum for Tavares to sign last summer, or during the season.
Snow could have very easily forced Tavares’ hand by entertaining the idea of trading him before the Feb. 26 deadline, with a king’s ransom waiting in return. Instead, Snow publicly declared Tavares would not be traded — not even listening to the offers that might have come in — and therefore handed the fate of the franchise to his star player. It was a nice thing to do, but it was Snow sacrificing the one practical piece of leverage he had in order to try garnering some goodwill.
Islanders co-owners Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin already have acquiesced in at least some regard, if not by sanctioning Snow’s inaction, then by keeping Snow on as GM and by rubber-stamping the decision to make Weight the full-time head coach after his short audition at the end of last season. Tavares considers both of them good friends, with Weight having been a teammate and landlord early in his career.
But this has been an ugly season, one that started with the promise of an offensive powerhouse, but that since has gone off the rails. There is massive disappointment for a second straight playoff miss, the eighth miss in the past 11 seasons, and a reminder that the most recent time this franchise got out of the second round (1993) was when Tavares had not yet even turned 3 years old.
The preternaturally mature center — he is a center, despite Weight’s 10-minute experiment with him on the wing Sunday against the Hurricanes — has done what he could to put the uncertain future out of his mind while trying to will his undermanned roster into the playoffs. But it hasn’t been easy.
“I think I haven’t thought about my situation maybe as much as I thought I would,” Tavares said before his team beat the Penguins 4-1 on Tuesday night at Barclays Center as he tallied two assists to move into fifth on the Islanders’ all-time points list with 612. “Certainly over the last couple months when things aren’t going so well, it’s never easy no matter what. But it’s not something I try to think about a whole lot.
“To me, it’s separate — the season and my contract situation. I don’t really see them going hand-in-hand or having an effect on one or the other.”
The details of a new deal are only relevant if Tavares is longing for the security of an eighth year, with the Islanders the only team able to offer more than seven. It’s hard to gauge the outside market at this point, but there would be a limited number of clubs willing to put $85 million to $90 million on the table. And Tavares wouldn’t go just anywhere for the sake of leaving (most especially not the Rangers).
Other than that, however, this decision is one Tavares will make on gut instinct, on what he believes is best for his family and best for himself as a player.
First, he has to figure out if what he’s feeling for the Islanders is loyalty or guilt, because that’s the difference between making a good decision and a bad one — and determining the fate of a franchise in the process.