Maple Leafs, pending UFA Tavares have opened contract talks
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The Toronto Maple Leafs have opened contract talks with veteran forward John Tavares as he begins the final season of his current contract.
Tavares is set to begin playing out the last of a seven-year, $77 million deal on Wednesday night. He signed with the Maple Leafs in 2018 when he was lured away from the New York Islanders as an unrestricted free agent and is currently scheduled to hit the open market for the second time in his career next July.
TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun reports that while talks are expected to pick up, the Maple Leafs aren't rushing to get a new deal signed.
"There's something happening from the point of view that there have been contract talks," LeBrun said Tuesday on Insider Trading. "There's been back-and-forth between Tavares' camp, led by agent Pat Brisson and the Leafs front office just to get the ball rolling. I don't think anything is imminent, although I do hear that that dialogue is supposed to pick up again in the near future.
"I don't know if there's a huge rush from the team perspective. I mean, listen, there's a mutual desire between the team and John Tavares to get something done at some point. John Tavares, of course, calls Toronto home, was raising a family in Toronto. But I think from the Leafs perspective, yeah, something they want to get done. I don't know if they're in a rush to do it."
Tavares enters this season without the "C" on his jersey after the Maple Leafs transitioned the captaincy to centre Auston Matthews in the off-season. He had previously held the role since 2019.
The 34-year-old centre had 29 goals and 65 points in 80 games last season, adding one goal and an assist in seven playoff games. He topped the 30-goal mark for the sixth time in his 15-year career in 2022-23 with 36.
He is sixth among active players with 456 career goals and eighth among active players in points with 1,040 over his 1,109 career games.
The Maple Leafs open their season Wednesday against the Montreal Canadiens with Tavares among the six pending unrestricted free agents on their roster. That list also includes star winger Mitch Marner and defenceman Jake McCabe.