THE HEART OF THE DEAL
A courtship that heated up on draft night left Tavares torn between his hometown Leafs and the only club he’d known. In the end, the Leafs won — by playing the hockey card
At no point during the process did team president Brendan Shanahan or general manager Kyle Dubas allow themselves to believe that John Tavares would join the Maple Leafs — until they got the word from his camp on Saturday. “Any time any team talks to players, you see a general excitement about what you’re presenting,” said Shanahan. “We saw things we presented to him and the questions he asked us afterwards as positive signs. But as we all learn at different times, until it happens, until you have a contract signed, you really can’t get too excited.” The excitement around the team is palpable now. Tavares is a Maple Leaf, signed for seven years at $77 million U.S. A superstar added to a lineup of young studs coming home to play for the team he grew up loving. Here’s how it went down:
THE STAMKOS LESSON
In the aftermath of a lost 2015-16 season — one in which the Leafs finished dead last and earned the right to draft Auston Matthews first overall, team brass met with Lightning star Steven Stamkos in the hopes of luring the homegrown forward to Toronto as a free agent. Stamkos balked and re-signed with Tampa before July 1. Dubas was more on the sidelines for that meeting. It was more about money (potential sponsors) and fame (Stamkos’s place in the city) than it was about hockey. And hockey — winning in particular — is really all that matters to players.
DUBAS: “For me the key was, we had to make this about hockey, nothing else, and what we do to take care of our players and their families and protecting them away from the rink and so on and so forth. And most notably it was about hockey. I didn’t think we needed to get into anything else about our program here at all. Just make it about hockey. That’s why he was going to come here in the end, and all the rest of the periphery stuff (for agents and others to) worry about.”
TAVARES: “As similar as our situations are, there definitely were some differences. That’s probably why I’m here today. (Stamkos) probably felt differently then. If he hadn’t made that decision, who knows? Maybe this doesn’t become a possibility.”
THE GAME PLAN
Dubas said the Leafs started to target Tavares — a perennial all-star centre with the New York Islanders — after the Feb. 26 trade deadline while laying out ideas for next season. They had to come up with a plan. Hockey players are historically conservative. They don’t leave the team that drafted them easily. But basketball players? They’re different. Dubas turned to his NBA counterparts: Raptors president Masai Ujiri, GM Bobby Webster and vice-president Teresa Resch.
DUBAS: “We tried to study other sports where this is more prevalent, studying those organizations and how they’ve been successful, notably basketball. They’re ahead of all others in terms of these types of sequences, convincing players to come to a different program (than the one) they’ve been familiar with. Bobby and Masai and Teresa with the Raptors were a great resource for us. We’d be foolish not to. They’ve been through this a lot more than us.”
THE COURTSHIP
It was during the NHL draft in Dallas, June 22 and 23, that the Tavares camp informed teams that were in the mix to go to Los Angeles and make their pitches.
TAVARES: “I took it very seriously, those teams coming all the way out to see me. I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time. I wanted to be very thorough, very honest.”
DUBAS:“I went to L.A. after the draft … Brendan and (coach Mike Babcock) arrived Monday morning (June 25) and it kind of got sped up ... we just met in the morning and went through all the preparation we had. I don’t know about directing it. I thought Brendan was the best person to speak about the organization, and Mike obviously on the tactical side of things. I just wanted to share my vision for the team and where we’re at and where we’re going, and how we’re going to get there, to John so he had a clear understanding of where he fit and how we were going to do that. That’s all we did.” BABCOCK: “It’s not about flash. It’s about substance. It’s about going there with a plan, and not only did we have that plan, we had it built out for years to come. You’re getting a guy to come to, I think, the greatest hockey city in the world. It’s your family, you want to feel safe here. You want to know you can do well here. He was able to feel that, and that is why he is here.”
THE MEETING
The Leafs were the first team up. A video was included with his future teammates encouraging Tavares to come. Dubas led the meeting. DUBAS: “It was very methodical. (Tavares) was very well prepared for the process. You go and talk to various free agents and he was by far the most prepared I’ve ever seen. He walked in, he had a very detailed list of questions he wanted answered: about our style of play; how Mike was going to use him; about my visions for the team and how we were going to move it ahead; how we were going to keep the core of the team together; what our strategy was. So he was very, very detailed and direct and I thought that was outstanding.” TAVARES: “Once we got into the process and my feelings were starting to pan out after a few days, every team made a great case, great potential. But as I got back from L.A., I felt my heart was in two places: a place that I’m from (Toronto) and a place that I was at for a long time and that helped make me the man that I am today (Long Island). My gut was torn apart about what I wanted to do.”
THE LOBBYING
DUBAS: “The definitive action was informing John about the players he’d play with. That was the most exciting part and those players were great. They spoke with him.” TAVARES: “A lot of guys reached out. Patty Marleau, I talked to him quite a bit. Not that our situations were similar, but I know that he went through some heartache leaving a place that he was in for so long (San Jose) last year. And he was very open and honest with me, so that was very helpful. Auston and Mitch (Marner) reached out, just talking about wanting to build a winner, wanting to do something special here. And I felt like, I can help them out and they’re driven to win. They’re hungry kids. So they were great, and I’ve already had 10 or 12 guys text me to reach out. Very excited to be part of this locker room.”
THE WAITING
DUBAS: “I had no feeling one way or the other. Sometimes you go into a meeting and you know it’s gone badly, and sometimes you walk out of a meeting and think we did great. This one was just like that. I had no idea whether we did great or we did poorly, and then throughout the week you start to hear anecdotes out of their camp and then you go up and down. It’s an emotional decision for him, he goes up and down, and that gets cast back onto us and the other teams that were involved. So you just ride the wave during the week, you try to ride it well and continue to focus on what our other plans would have been, and we’re happy that it came to the conclusion that it did.”
THE DECISION
TAVARES: “Ask my fiancée how many times I walked up and down the pool (deck) at my house as I got a sense of the path I wanted to take. I just felt this opportunity was just so rare: where the team is, being from here, too. I think this team has an opportunity, not just right now but for the entire seven years of my contract. I really believe there’s a window here to win. From the meeting we had until (Saturday), my feelings just fell into place. I knew it would be the uncomfortable thing to do, but I didn’t want that to affect my decision to take a chance.” DUBAS: “We put our best foot forward. And then as the week went on, we kept getting questions from (agent Pat Brisson) and John and the representatives. Late (Saturday) night it became apparent. We had to work out a contract until the morning. As far as being on edge, we were very hopeful. All we did is present our leadership, from the coaching staff to Brendan on down. I think the important part is the players John was going to play with. In the end, I think that if you boiled it down it’s about the players guys want to play with.” SHANAHAN: “You don’t see it that often anymore, where a player leaves a team that he’s been on. So I think, as John said, it was timing. I think the Islanders did a lot of good things this year that made it even harder for him. But athletes usually work on instincts when they’re playing their sport. They’re not used to having these types of decisions ... Ultimately, as hard as it was, he had an instinct that the timing was right to come here.” TAVARES:“As time goes on, you start to get a feeling kind of where your heart is, and kind of what your gut’s telling you. There were some excellent opportunities from a lot of teams, and I definitely recognized those … it came down basically to the Islanders and the Leafs, and it was just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I felt like I had to take it and do the best I can to make it work, and have some fun, and achieve your dreams. So yeah, it was quite the process. I think it was some time in the middle or late afternoon (Saturday) where I felt very strongly that this was the path I wanted to (take) and go outside my comfort zone a little bit, for the reasons I’ve stated. And my instincts were telling me that this was the right thing for me.”