Why John Tavares Will Be an Islander and Not a Maple Leaf Next Season

In the weeks leading up to this year's NHL Draft, the most sought-after prospect in the draft in John Tavares, and it appears that he will be the next big star in the NHL. He has been compared to Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby, and he was so good that the OHL made a special clause to allow the 14-year-old Tavares to play in their league, even though you had to be 15 years old to play there.

Once he played with the Ottawa Generals, he started to score more goals than the great Gretzky did when he was in the OHL, and after spending some time with the London Knights, Tavares is ready to join the National Hockey League. The only question remaining is, where is he going to go?

The first pick in the draft currently belongs to the New York Islanders, and they need to get Tavares because they are a franchise on the edge, and he is the most important player who will come to the island in some time. They need a player who will become the real face of the franchise (sorry, Rick DiPietro) and will bring the team back to the days when they won the Stanley Cup every year. Also, because of the condition of the Nassau Coliseum and the Lighthouse Project to transform the surrounding area in doubt, they need a face that would push this project through and keep them on Long Island.

Meanwhile, Toronto has shown extreme interest in getting Tavares. General Manager Brian Burke has made it no suprise that he wants Tavares in the organization to help the Maple Leafs win their first Stanley Cup in over 40 years. He told the media that he called Islanders GM Garth Snow and that they were talking about a trade between them involving Tavares.

Snow has publicly said that he won't trade these draft rights because the Islanders need a star player on Long Island. Also, remember that Tavares might not go to the Islanders at all in the draft, which could make him a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning or another team, which makes this plan not work at all.

Another reason why this won't work is that the Maple Leafs have almost nothing that they could trade to the Islanders if they wanted to make this work. The Islanders would definitely want multiple good young players to come to them, along with many draft picks. There also has been a bogus rumor from Sports Illustrated that a trade with the Maple Leafs would provide salary cap relief to the Islanders, but the problem with this article from Jim Kelley is that the Islanders are barely out of the league's salary cap basement, which means that they have lots of salary cap room.

So, finally, Toronto will have no chance at having Tavares next season because the obstacles that New York is facing will prevent them from making a good trade. The Islanders know that this will be their time to finally make a move that will count and help bring back the Stanley Cup to Long Island, and Toronto can only watch as this is done.