The departure of John Tavares, who signed a seven-year contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs on July 1, 2018, is still a difficult one for New York Islanders fans to accept and some will never forgive him for choosing to leave the club Moving on with the team he loved when he was younger.
After accepting $77 million to pursue his career near his hometown of Mississauga, the Ontario native is viewed as a traitor by many fans of his former organization. In her opinion, he should have spent his entire career with the Islanders, who picked him first overall at the 2009 amateur auction. However, the club’s former general manager Garth Snow believes the organization could well have avoided the loss of their star player.
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In an interview with the New York Post, Snow said that in the months leading up to the Leafs confirming his hiring, he tried to convince his boss to grant Tavares a compact. However, owner Scott Malkin disagreed.
“His decision was not to sell him despite the circumstances. He had agreed to grant her a new arrangement. I remember the words I said to him: “Are you ready to drive the car down the cliff all season and come to the opening of the autonomy market?” He was happy with that option, that’s all,” he said former goalkeeper.
Snow claims Malkin made it difficult for him to strike a deal with the player, who scored 47 goals in his first season in Toronto. And yet the owner’s mindset changed when a changing of the guard at the GM position took place in June 2018, weeks before the captain’s official loss.
“Ideas I recommended were discarded. Then I laughed a lot when Lou [Lamoriello] arrived. They went with what I suggested,” he added, knowing full well that the islanders’ efforts were proving futile.
Pale negotiations
Snow was also very open about the talks in 2017. The chances of an agreement were rather slim. Negotiations made little headway, and eventually Malkin took the lead, for better or for worse.
“I’m so sorry he got dragged through the mud for a stake that wasn’t his fault. The islanders could have traded him if they wanted, but the decision had been made. It’s not his fault there wasn’t a transaction,” the former leader said.