Veteran forward John Tavares is signing a 4 year, $18M contract extension with the Toronto Maple Leafs the club announced on Friday.
The deal will reportedly carry $2M in deferred salary, bringing his AAV to $4.38M per season. Tavares will feature a full no trade clause for the first two seasons, followed by a 5 team no-trade list for the final two years.
Tavares could have easily fetched a higher annual figure on the open market, however the Mississauga, ON native had been adamant about his desire to stay with his hometown team. The 34 year old took to social media in the wake of the announcement to express his pleasure with getting a deal done to avoid free agency.
“Coming to Toronto 7 years ago has been better than I ever anticipated,” said his Instagram post. “The challenge of helping bring the Cup back to the many generations of Leafs Fans and Leafs Nation is an incredible opportunity that pushes myself and my teammates everyday [sic]. TO is an incredible place to play and it’s an honour to pull on the Maple Leaf and wear the blue and white. I’m thrilled to announce that I’m committed to four more years! My family and I are excited to continue our journey here in Toronto. The best is yet to come!”
Tavares was nearly a point per game player 2024-25 recording 74 points (38G, 36A) across 75 contests with the Leafs. The former number 1 overall pick would go on to add 7 points (5G, 2A) across 13 postseason contests this spring.
The Tavares deal is a tidy piece of business for a Toronto club who had limited cap space to work with, and is expected to lose forward Mitch Marner to free agency in a few days time. After being unable to sign Marner to an extension, it appears as though the dynamic 28 year old will be testing the waters of free agency on July 1st, and could be heading to a smaller market for 2025-26.
NHL free agency officially opens at 12pm on Tuesday.
Photo: Quintin Soloviev. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.