After speculation about whether the Toronto Maple Leafs would ask their captain to waive his no-movement clause, Lyle Richardson looks at why that's unlikely.
Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares sits fifth among his teammates in scoring this season with 34 points in 45 games. However, he enters Wednesday's game against the Winnipeg Jets without points in his last eight games.
In his Sunday column, the Toronto Sun's Steve Simmons observed Tavares' production dropped over the last quarter of the season, with few coming at even strength. He worried that this could be a sign of things to come for the 33-year-old center, who's signed through next season with an annual salary-cap hit of $11 million.
Simmons speculated the time could be coming soon for the Leafs to ask Tavares to waive his no-movement clause, either before the end of this season or during the summer.
It's unlikely, however, that management will approach their captain with that request. Tavares made it very clear following the 2023 playoffs that he wanted to finish his contract in Toronto.
Assuming Tavares would agree to waive his NMC, not many clubs can afford his $11-million cap hit, even with the cap rising by a projected $4.2 million for next season.
Tavares is currently earning $7.95 million in actual salary this season as well as for 2024-25, per PuckPedia. Nevertheless, that's still a steep price for an aging center whose performance seems to be in decline.
The Leafs could retain up to half of Tavares' cap hit to make his contract more palatable for potentially interested clubs. If his game is in decline, there's little incentive for clubs to take that on.
If - and that's a big “if” - Tavares agrees to waive his movement clause, he won't do it for rebuilding clubs or playoff bubble teams. He'll probably want to join a contender, but there might not be much interest from those clubs at this stage in his career.
The bottom line here is the Leafs would face long odds moving Tavares.