Leafs Nation reveals which member of the core they would trade; surprisingly, the answer wasn't Nylander
The Toronto Maple Leafs have some big decisions to make this summer and, while the biggest area of concern is probably between the pipes, there are still other areas of concern that need to be addressed.
One of the most hotly-discussed topics relates to the Leafs' salary cap situation and the need to spread out the wealth, so to speak. The Leafs have roughly $47M in cap space committed to 5 players next season - well over half the team's salary cap. The model has not yet proven successful and because of that, a large population of the fanbase is calling for someone in the Leafs' core to be moved.
The Athletic's Joshua Kloke polled Leafs fans on Twitter recently to see who they felt the Leafs should move to free up some cap space. While the response in the past was a very quick shift to William Nylander, due mostly to his inconsistency and his unwillingness to get his hands dirty or play in the difficult areas, it might alarm you to find out that another member of the Leafs' core received almost 60% of the votes. Leafs captain John Tavares.
Tavares and his $11M cap hit came in at number one with 58.9% of the vote. Nylander did remain 2nd on the list, but with a remarkably low 29.8% of the vote. Unsurprisingly, Auston Matthews was lowest on the list, though 0.8% did vote in favour of trading him. The actual number of people who voted Matthews was 28. Let's go ahead and assume they were either not really Leafs fans or that they are simply among the population who believe Matthews may walk as a free agent.
Tavares is on the books for 3 more years and has a full NMC, so it's about as unlikely as it can possibly be that he'll actually be moved. Obviously, it was a hypothetical question. I highly doubt that Leafs GM Kyle Dubas would actually ever ask JT to waive his NMC.
There's no question that Tavares, who will be 32 by the time next season begins, is on the back 9 of his career, but that doesn't mean that he isn't still a valuable player to this team. I'm not saying that I disagree with the fanbase and would prefer to move out Tavares were it not for his NMC. I'm just saying that while he's on the downslope, he has a long way to go to reach the bottom. He's still a useful player. He's still tenacious on the puck. He can still score big goals and play big minutes.
All that said, $11M in additional cap space would be a game-changer right about now.
