seeing JT getting chocked up talking about the islanders,this man has so much passion for Hockey,so no matter what the circumstances for leaving the NYI,hes coming home.to where his family is, where his dream of playing hockey started in the first place. Extremely bold life changing decision that you've probably wanted your whole life,Maple leaf fans haven't been this excited about watching the Buds in god knows how long,you'll bring Class, competitivity,Grace to OUR team. this is the start to something really special for this organization and i can't wait to this all unfold in October#bleedblueandwhite
Michael Joseph there was rumors during the year that he was jealous that he was no longer THE guy and I now believe they are true!!! And it will be interesting to see how he does with the media and with how slow he is. When you watch 95% of barzals highlights, Tavares is nowhere to be seen until after the goal is scored, he couldn't keep up. He is slow and he had a major slump this season. He chose Toronto bc his wife wanted to live close to her mom. I feel he is going to end up regretting his decision because he is sooo private! His teammates are just as pissed off as the fans. If you wanna leave, fine but don't bullshit your fans, teammates, and organization. If he thinks he's gonna get a nice video tribute and cheering when he comes to Barclays he is sadly mistaken. It's gonna be brutal! And when he goes through his slumps every year and his constant turnovers, the Toronto fans and media are gonna be even more brutal!
I’m an Islanders fan and I can’t help but disagree with your point of view. I’m upset that he left but I understand why. He made promises to the old coach and the old GM. Now he’s supposed to start over again and make a promise to a team that’s kind of in disarray? We’ve been screwed ever since they shut down the Lighthouse Project. The Islanders will not be competitive until they have an arena to call home. He gave everything to our organization and after a while we let him down time and time again. I hope he honestly wins the cup because he deserves it. He joined the team that he grew up as a kid rooting for, and if things do go south over there, I’m sure the only place he’ll want to be traded is to the Islanders. You can tell that he wasn’t gutted over his decision and that he was really torn. I wish we had gotten something for him when we had the chance, but that flew out the window when we fired the coach and GM that he asked not to be traded. If he got traded he would have ended up on the Maple Leafs anyway, and he didn’t want to have to play for another organization for a year. You really can’t expect him to make those kinds of promises to a new staff. I for one will be cheering when he comes back.
melissa totino pretty sure tavares lead the team in points and plus let me get this straight he's jealous of barzal but he's gunna go play with 4 kids that are better then barzal I'm confused I'm pretty sure Tavares not jealous of barzal lol but if that makes you isles fans sleep better all the power to you. by the way TAVARES IS A LEAF GO LEAFS GO
Hey John Gatti are you happy now? The Face of the Franchise is now a Toronto Born Player. You don’t have to hate on Auston anymore we got the great Canadian Boy u wanted
Dghvd hfhhb thank you! Lol I'm a Canadian, & a Torontonian, & I could never understand why there was even the slightest undercurrent of the whole "Austin Matthews is US Born". Trust me, the vast majority of us Leafs fans don't care if they're Canadian, American, from Mars or are luminescent green lol we win with them, they're a Toronto Maple Leaf, period. Birthplace doesn't matter to me & none of my fellow Leafs fans.
SuperStrik9 there's actually fewer people calling it the skydome, (as badass as the name is) I'm seeing far less of skydome, and more of Rogers Centre in the recent times
OMG words cannot describe how big this is. This is history in the making. It was a new day when we drafted Matthews and now this? Simply unbelievable. It's been many hard long years my dear Leaf's nation... countless disappointments and false dreams... it would seem that the tides are turning and destiny is finally about to take hold. I can feel the excitement in the city, countless Leaf's fans are now rejoicing. Today is a day of days. We're not talking about 1 cup. Get ready for multiple cups. A dynasty is being assembled right before our eyes. Quite possibly the greatest chapters in Leaf's history are about to be written. A new era has begun. (I still can't believe it...!!)
Laughable you really think you will dominate in todays NHl with so much parity..Youll be lucky to get a shot at it and no way will you be a shoe in...way to much talent wake up and im not a piles fan and can tell you JT is not a generational player and in four years hell start to become slugo, ok maybe five but four seems about reasonable..Good luck with him but get real if you think your a shoe in for anything, not in this league today i dont care how loaded your lineup appears
Michael brindisi Tell that to the Islander fans that he abandoned, saying he’d re-sign, insisted on not being traded because he wanted to re-sign, so the Islanders get nothing. He turned his back on the team and gave them nothing.
You are 100% wrong. Garth told him he wasn't being traded and Tavares was fine with that. Don't be salty. Isles had many years to put him in a position to win and never even tried. Now you can rebuild with lying Lou the dinosaur and that clown Trotz for the next 20 years.
PennyHardaway24 except on Defense lol score all the goals but cant play defense and wont win championships lol but congrats on JT maybe he will attract a high level dman or two
R C not salty bro JT is the shit and matthews and nylander and kadri and on and on and on but they could use a couple stud d men and then be really scary man
This guys the real deal, even getting choked up a little talking about the Isle and what it means to him you can clearly see this was a very tough decision
Yeah at 21:33 he doesn't remember his old teammates name, that's a great class act, that's and asshole who is jealous of the attention barzal received this year
TavaresBlows sss was not going to win one in nyi anyways, at least he home now closer to fiance, family, friends and have an arena to call home and get to play with Matthews, Nylander, Marner, Kadri and have Anderson in net. Sucks nyi lost their franchise player but at least nyi have Lou, Trotz, Barzel, Lee, Eberle, Hosang
Today is the best day in my life. My leafs just signed Johnny T. Welcome home JT. You are a great player and you will help us to bring the Cup. You are great. Will be Captain soon.
This is from auston matthews' twitter dumbass.... "Welcome aboard @91Tavares ! Pumped to have you in the blue and white and now call you a teammate #goleafs" This narrative is fucking dumb
I don't understand why people say this. Centre Depth is a THNG. Crosby/Malkin and now Tavares/Matthews. Matthews is also only 21, He will end up being way better than Tavares in the next 2-3 years.
I wouldn’t expect a star player from a team to berate or openly disagree with a signing of a player with JT’s talent. However this was Matthews team and he’s one of the players who dragged this franchise from the bottom of the league to where it is now. Now all of a sudden a homegrown boy is going to come back and steal all of the spotlight and steal the captaincy? If I was in the position I would be pretty pissed and feel kind of betrayed if they gave him all of the credit. Look at what happened to Kyrie and LeBron. A star player took over a franchise while another star player was there fixing the damage from before, and then got no credit after the fact. What’s to stop Matthews from going out and joining the team he rooted for and being a legend/retired number there? Granted I am an Islanders fan and I’m absolutely gutted to JT go, and he did leave in a prettt bad fashion. I do however see that he’s joined the team that he’s wanted since he was a kid and you could tell that he meant everything he said, so I do hope he wins the cup with the Leafs, I really do. But I can’t help but comment on the fact that Matthew and Tavares will clash if things don’t go smoothly and the media starts pointing fingers. Who are they going to blame? The brand new generational talent signing or the young draft pick? It’s not hard to guess where it’s going to fall.
This is huge, wow!!! leafs have to get tougher now, need 2 tough wingers and 2 or 3 tough defencemen, Luke Schen is available for cheap, Lucic is available Oilers would have to take some contract can fight can check but cant skate that could be a problem, if you watched the finals how tough it was and checking the Leafs have to become like that.
Jesse M if Lucic could skate he would be perfect for the leafs, they really need some toughness esspecialy on the back end, im sure they trying to make something happen, you watched the finals all the checking almost perfect defence lots to do yet.
Hofer See the games changed man. Team's dont employ guys like Martin anymore, that takes up a place for a player with skill. Fighting in hky is dying away
The last time the leafs won a cup my grandfather was 21, my dad has never seen one. Ive never seen one. Tavares, thank you for coming home and trying to change that. Go Leafs Go.
Even as a Rangers fan I got to say this guy totally disrespected his former team. He could have shown a bit more respect and allowed them to trade him..He really pissed on them lmao and sorry but that just wasnt nice and trust me we cant stand each others fanbases but to be honest this is the first time I can say I feel a bit for their fanbase, yeah its that bad of a move, that bad. Man is he in for it when they come to ny..I wont miss that game for sure. My god hes gonna suffer. I never seen isles fans so pissed lmfao
He could not remember it because it was a passive aggressive display of jealousy..learn Psychology and Im not an Isnalders fan but that is easy to see. The kid is awesome and won the calder..yeah jealousy is more like it
Great movie by Toronto! All said and done this will going ahead cause teams to sign their players or trade them to get something for them before they are gone! The Islanders could have let him go early in the weeks before the trade deadline and they would have gotten 2 first rounders this year and next from anyone! Vancouver ended up with nothing for the Sedins and they are going to feel that loose for some time to come. But that's hockey. And yes 77 mill is allot. Toronto went for it and great for them.
Some advice to the leafs...do not put this guy out in 3 on 3 overtime or in a shootout...yes he has his strengths but he will cost u a game after regulation by breaking his stick or turning the puck over trying to do to much or being on the ice to long
Gardiner - the guy who gives the puck away more than any regular in the league - THAT Gardiner?!?! Yeah, to idiots. I can't take you serious after that Gardiner comment. The only quality guy they lost is JVR, and he was unidimensional. Bozak, Komorov, Gardiner represent a ton of salary and they are all garbage. Kadri is now expendable with Matthews and Tavares down the middle. Go learn hockey and then come back to debate.
U can't deny the fact, with how the boys played last year , and now with the addition of tavares ... Can't say we aren't Legit contenders this year ! We will make teams wanna hate to see us in the playoffs
Tavares must be a die hard leafs fan and has been waiting till this day to come home to play for his childhood dream team... Bravo John... I'll take u over stamkos any day.
