Plenty of interest in Tavares as signing period nears
John Tavares is leaving the NHL guessing about his destination.
With the market set to open Sunday afternoon, the center is believed to be considering six suitors, with the San Jose Sharks, hometown Toronto Maple Leafs and incumbent New York Islanders the most likely options.
By selecting free agency instead of re-signing with the Islanders early, it would seem to favor San Jose and Toronto, either of which could sign the 27-year-old to a seven-year deal worth $70 million or more.
He met this week with the Sharks, Maple Leafs, Islanders, Boston Bruins, Dallas Stars and Tampa Bay Lightning, and his decision could drastically affect the plans of those teams and others.
Several teams made moves Saturday ahead of the frenzy.
The Sharks agreed on an eight-year, $64 million extension with forward Logan Couture, the AP reported. It can’t become official until after noon Sunday, the same as long-term deals the Los Angeles Kings have with Drew Doughty and the Arizona Coyotes have with Oliver EkmanLarsson and Niklas Hjalmarsson.
Detroit got its own defenseman under contract for the next two seasons by agreeing to a deal with Mike The Jets traded goaltender Steve Mason to the Canadiens in an effort to clear salary-cap space. Green that pays him $5.375 million annually. Signing Green could be just the start of the action for the Red Wings, who have been linked to unrestricted free-agent goaltender Jonathan Bernier and winger Thomas Vanek of the Blue Jackets.
New Jersey also shored up its goaltending situation by re-signing Eddie Lack to a one-year, $650,000 deal. The Devils also have Cory Schneider and Keith Kinkaid, who split time last season and in the playoffs.
The Buffalo Sabres are expected to sign goalie Carter Hutton, who had been the St. Louis Blues’ backup to Jake Allen.
Hutton and others seem to already be ticketed for certain places, but many bigname players are still up for grabs.
Maple Leafs wing James van Riemsdyk, who tied Tavares with 36 goals last season, has been drawing significant interest and, at 29, could easily command a seven-year contract at a substantial raise over his previous $4.25 million salary.
The Vegas Golden Knights have cap space but might lose wings David Perron and James Neal, who combined for 110 points last season.
The Winnipeg Jets are doing their best to try to bring back center Paul Stastny after he was instrumental in their playoff run. They cleared about $5.5 million in cap space by trading goaltender Steve Mason and forward Joel Armia to Montreal, but may still need more room to bring back the 32-year-old.
The Canadiens are set to buy out Mason, a former Vezina Trophy winner with the Blue Jackets, putting him on unconditional waivers, as the Minnesota Wild did with forward Tyler Ennis to clear cap space.