Post by New York Islanders on Nov 26, 2022 14:40:56 GMT -6
Ok, so let’s talk about the elephant in the room* - John Tavares. Acquired to replace both Anders Lee as the captain and Brock Nelson as one of the last year’s top scorers he was supposed to never hit free agency, but rather be offered a new contract and be a corner stone in the future build. However, well aware of GM Westman’s intentions agent Mammon G Reedy declared that the cost for keeping Tavares would be no less than $52 M, an offer Islander representatives have called ”a backstab” and ”a declaration of war”.
John Tavares was acquired from Detroit in the pre season along with Colton Sissons and Iliya Sorokin. As Islanders gave up captain Anders Lee, scorer Brock Nelson and veteran netminder Semyon Varlamov there should be no hesitation about GM Westman’s expectations. And when it comes to the performance on ice (rather than at the negotiation table) there’s not much to complain about.
With a little more than a quarter of the season in the books NY Islanders are second in the division, fifth in the conference and eigth overall. Tavares is 10 + 14 after 22 games, averaging 1,09 ppg, and winning 56,05 of the face offs, just as expected. Sissons had an exceptional pre season and has followed up with a decent season so far with 12 points and 51,13 % faceoff wins. Sorokin is still struggling to find his game with 12 wins in 18 starts, 3,04 GAA and 89,4 Save %. Just as a comparison the equivalent numbers for the traded players are: Lee 6p/57.69 FO, Nelson 20p/53.76 and Varlamov 3,66 GAA/88,2 %. Adding also the fact that Sorokin is seven years younger than Varlamov the trade would have been more than OK for the Islanders – had it not been for the elephant in the room…
”I would be lying to say the ultimatum from Mr G Reedy - four years @ $13 M - didn’t come as a chock to all os us”, GM Westman confesses. ”We value Tavares highly and were planning to offer a new contract with a substantional raise but a cap hit of $13 M is way over our budget.”
The initial reaction from the Islanders’ management was to put John Tavares on the block, but the interest was low, to say the least. Only one team approached the Islanders with an offer. According to our sources the offer was quite decent as it contained a skilled center under contract and a first round pick. Rumor also has it Westman offered Tavares in a trade, but was more or less laughed at as the other team had no interest in taking over the outrageous salary demand. After that Tavares became the elephant in the room as noone after that spoke about him and the salary demand. There has been no more trade offers made or recieved, there has been no more talks on the topic with Tavares or Mr G Reedy and the entire hockey community are waiting for GM Westman to speak up and declare what his plans are for the future. But as most are expecting the solution to be either a trade or accepting the demand after all the answer might be something completely different…
”There’s actually a third option to consider. If we still consider us a strong contender as we approach the trade deadline and John and we are still working well together we might just decide to go roll on and see how far it will take us. Sure, that would mean we would be a key center short going into the off season, but we would then have a decent cap space to work with, so I’m not too worried, all three options are still open”, Westman concludes.
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*The expression “ the elephant in the room ” (or " the elephant in the living room ") is a metaphorical idiom in English for an important or enormous topic, question, or controversial issue that is obvious or that everyone knows about but no one mentions or wants to discuss because it makes at least some of them uncomfortable and is personally, socially, or politically embarrassing, controversial, inflammatory, or dangerous.
John Tavares was acquired from Detroit in the pre season along with Colton Sissons and Iliya Sorokin. As Islanders gave up captain Anders Lee, scorer Brock Nelson and veteran netminder Semyon Varlamov there should be no hesitation about GM Westman’s expectations. And when it comes to the performance on ice (rather than at the negotiation table) there’s not much to complain about.
With a little more than a quarter of the season in the books NY Islanders are second in the division, fifth in the conference and eigth overall. Tavares is 10 + 14 after 22 games, averaging 1,09 ppg, and winning 56,05 of the face offs, just as expected. Sissons had an exceptional pre season and has followed up with a decent season so far with 12 points and 51,13 % faceoff wins. Sorokin is still struggling to find his game with 12 wins in 18 starts, 3,04 GAA and 89,4 Save %. Just as a comparison the equivalent numbers for the traded players are: Lee 6p/57.69 FO, Nelson 20p/53.76 and Varlamov 3,66 GAA/88,2 %. Adding also the fact that Sorokin is seven years younger than Varlamov the trade would have been more than OK for the Islanders – had it not been for the elephant in the room…
”I would be lying to say the ultimatum from Mr G Reedy - four years @ $13 M - didn’t come as a chock to all os us”, GM Westman confesses. ”We value Tavares highly and were planning to offer a new contract with a substantional raise but a cap hit of $13 M is way over our budget.”
The initial reaction from the Islanders’ management was to put John Tavares on the block, but the interest was low, to say the least. Only one team approached the Islanders with an offer. According to our sources the offer was quite decent as it contained a skilled center under contract and a first round pick. Rumor also has it Westman offered Tavares in a trade, but was more or less laughed at as the other team had no interest in taking over the outrageous salary demand. After that Tavares became the elephant in the room as noone after that spoke about him and the salary demand. There has been no more trade offers made or recieved, there has been no more talks on the topic with Tavares or Mr G Reedy and the entire hockey community are waiting for GM Westman to speak up and declare what his plans are for the future. But as most are expecting the solution to be either a trade or accepting the demand after all the answer might be something completely different…
”There’s actually a third option to consider. If we still consider us a strong contender as we approach the trade deadline and John and we are still working well together we might just decide to go roll on and see how far it will take us. Sure, that would mean we would be a key center short going into the off season, but we would then have a decent cap space to work with, so I’m not too worried, all three options are still open”, Westman concludes.
-----------------------------------------------------------
*The expression “ the elephant in the room ” (or " the elephant in the living room ") is a metaphorical idiom in English for an important or enormous topic, question, or controversial issue that is obvious or that everyone knows about but no one mentions or wants to discuss because it makes at least some of them uncomfortable and is personally, socially, or politically embarrassing, controversial, inflammatory, or dangerous.
