Toronto Maple Leafs Captain John Tavares Confirms Future With Team After His Contract Ends

The Leafs captain, John Tavares, has been a core member of the team since he signed with them in free agency during the 2018 offseason. Now the 33-year old is coming to the end of the seven-year deal he signed with the team as next season will be his last of the contract. However, it sounds as though it will not be his last season with the Leafs.

An extension for the captain could prove difficult however. Both Tavares and Marner will be free agents at the same time, meaning the Leafs will have two major extensions to work on at the same time. Auston Mathews will be making 13.25 million dollars against the cap and William Nylander will be making 11.5 after he finalized the extension this morning.

That's nearly 25 million dollars locked up in two players. Marner will surely be looking for a substantial raise as well, meaning the Leafs could be paying not far off from 40 million dollars for three players. While Tavares likely will be taking a pay cut anyways due to his age, he has still proven to be worthy of a decent sized contract. Assuming his production remains steady next season, he could easily ask for eight million dollars if he wanted to.

The other question regarding another Tavares contract is term. He will be entering his age 35 season in the first year of a potential extension, meaning the team may not want to commit to him for more than a couple of years at most. That being said, the captain has shown few signs of slowing down to this point in his career, so perhaps he can still give the Leafs four or five more years of competitive hockey.

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