Tavares’ career with Islanders may be over as deadline passes

After so much good fortune, it seems like the Islanders have now suffered one of the worst blows in franchise history.

Captain John Tavares was not announced as signing a new deal as of late Saturday night, and once it got to midnight and the calendar changed to July 1, he was going to be an unrestricted free agent. Tavares couldn’t sign with another team until noon on Sunday, but because of the rules in the collective bargaining agreement, the Islanders were set to become just like any other team.

That means they could offer Tavares just a seven-year deal, whereas before midnight they could have signed him to an eight-year deal. That equates to about a $11 million-$13 million difference, assuming that was going to be about the annual salary-cap hit on his new deal.

And that means that with Tavares not signing, he could very well have said goodbye to the only NHL franchise he has known since they took him with the No. 1-overall pick in 2009.

It never seemed like contract terms were an issue for the captain who is set to be 28 years old when the season starts. He still could re-sign and forfeit the extra year — assuming he had not signed late Saturday night and it just wasn’t announced — but he was adamant throughout this process that he was weighing all the aspects of a franchise, from on-ice competitiveness to geophysical lifestyle.

This was all a culmination of a long, drawn-out process from one of the league’s elite players. He smartly chose not to sign an extension last summer, and went through another difficult season with the added annoyance of answering questions about his pending free agency. Tavares was then studious in taking advantage of his right to listen to what other teams had to say, bringing five of them into his agent’s office in Los Angeles earlier this week to go along with hearing a pitch from the Islanders.
The teams that talked to him were the Sharks, Maple Leafs, Lightning, Stars, and Bruins. And the Islanders, led by new President Lou Lamoriello and new coach Barry Trotz, still have to continue their drastic reshaping of the organization.

If Lamoriello wanted to give new Trotz the best chance to win, he would have signed Tavares and tried to fill in supplemental pieces around him.

With approximately $32 million of salary-cap space — before any Tavares signing, which would cost about $11 million to $12 million per — that wouldn’t be too hard.

The thing the Islanders need the most is a No. 1 goalie. It sure seems like former general manager Garth Snow, a journeyman goaltender himself, made a big mistake when he tried to hand the reins to Thomas Greiss, giving him a three-year, $10 million deal before the start of this past season. Greiss couldn’t handle the load by any stretch of the imagination, putting up a putrid 3.82 goals-against average and a .892 save percentage in 27 games.

Greiss’ co-netminder, Jaroslav Halak, is on his way to free agency after his four-year, $18 million deal given in the summer of 2014 turned out to be not be the answer, either.

It also isn’t as if the recent goaltending has gotten any help, with a defensive corps that was shallow and exposed with a handful of injuries. It looks as if Calvin de Haan is headed to free agency after his stellar stay-at-home play was hardly ever fully appreciated by the Islanders brass. Thomas Hickey also seems to be fielding offers from other teams, and likely is going to get a term that the Islanders would prefer to avoid.

That leaves some glaring holes on the back end, with Nick Leddy leading the way and Johnny Boychuk’s onerous contract (the 34-year-old is owed $6 million per for the next four seasons) there as well. Assuming restricted free agent Ryan Pulock gets locked up to some sort of deal, there are still spots to be had. It would only make sense that Lamoriello tires to find at least one, if not two, top-four defensemen.

There is also a need for at least one more forward who is an established scorer.

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Trotz is next step in Islanders revival — and a big Tavares lure

DALLAS — Boy, how things have fallen into place for…

For the first time in more than a decade, things with the Islanders seemed well financed and well thought out. Principal owner Scott Malkin and his partner Jon Ledecky have helped usher in a new era in Islanders history, beginning by getting them out of disastrous relationship with Brooklyn’s Barclays Center by winning the rights to build a new arena at Belmont Park, set to open in for the 2021-22 season. They then got lucky that Lamoriello went into a difficult contract situation in Toronto, so they were able to hire him on May 22 to run all hockey operations. Two weeks later, he relieved embattled general manager Garth Snow and neophyte coach Doug Weight.

Once again the organization was fortunate that Trotz also ran into a contract dispute just days after winning the Stanley Cup as coach of the Capitals, and with the financial backing of Malkin, Lamoriello was able to hire him on June 21.

Then the Isles went into the draft this past weekend and had three highly touted prospects fall down the board and into their lap during the first two rounds, picking up Oliver Wahlstrom, Noah Dobson and Bode Wilde to replenish their depleted prospect pool.

Tavares always had maintained his desire to stay with Islanders, but all of that put together was supposed to make it a heck of a lot easier. The Mississauga, Ontario, native is set to get married in August, and the Islanders playing the next three years bouncing between home games at Barclays Center and the renovated Coliseum won’t be ideal.

After all this, he apparently still hadn’t made a decision. If that’s the case, it looks like his time with the Islanders might be coming to a close.