REPORT: Detroit a Possible Destination for Tavares

Pierre McGuire was on TSN690 late Wednesday afternoon discussing potential destinations for upcoming UFA John Tavares and guess what team was brought up. Right, your Detroit Red Wings.

This is pure speculation, but interesting speculation.

I’m not sure Pierre knows a ton about the current Wings prospects situation, but this is interesting nonetheless. We can go on about the timeline about the current Wing’s prospects and whoever they pick with the upcoming 11 picks in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft – how Tavares wouldn’t be here when the Wings are contending again, etc.

As we can all recall, the “close to home” idea was also brought up when the rumours were surrounding Stamkos to be the next Detroit superstar. But yes, even Witkowski will pot several goals on the wing of Tavares, let alone Mantha.

Either way you view this, Tavares is an elite center and would be the top player on most teams in the league. I’m just stating the obvious here.

Currently 17th in scoring among the entire NHL with 64 points in 63 games, Tavares would be a key addition to literally every single team. Any team looks better on both ends of the ice with their logo on JT’s chest.

That production does ultimately come with a price tag though. Tavares is worth any of the big contracts that you currently see around the league. Anze Kopitar $10m/8yrs, Jonathan Toews $10.5m/8yrs, Evgeni Malkin $9.5m/8yrs and even Connor McDavid’s next contract of $12.5m/8yrs – that is the price for an elite center in the NHL.

The Red Wings would currently have to do a lot more contract-shuffling to get Tavares under the cap – it might be manageable, might not be.

We shall see in a few months where Tavares ends up, whether it be in Detroit or another budding NHL team looking for that one final elite forward.

I would worry about signing Larkin, Mantha and Athansiou before anyone else – keeping players that are already wearing the Winged Wheel on their chest.