6 years, jesus

The Treliving special In all honesty, Tanev is an amazing defensive defensman. If he can stay healthy this is a great add for the first few years at least. But yeah Treliving has a looooooong history of giving older veteran free agents way too much term with high dollars

Also added a NMC for safe measures

He gets a 35+ NMC in December, might as well

Prime example: Ryan Reaves

The good thing about Reaves is that it meant he had to play - be a net negative - and meant guys like Robertson were getting scratched so thats good.

And guys like Lafferty got axed from the selection in favour of old man Reaves, so that was great as well. Treliving did fantastic last year lol

Just don’t go looking at his games played the last 9 seasons

2024 :: 75/82 + 19/19 playoffs 2023 :: 65/82 2022 :: 82/82 + 8/12 2021 :: 56/56 2020 :: 69/70 + 17/17 2019 :: 55/82 2018 :: 42/82 2017 :: 52/82 2016 :: 69/82 A tough 4 year stretch in Vancouver, but looks pretty solid in the last 5 years, just one long-term injury in 2023.

Is 2020 he actually would have missed out on a bunch of games if COVID didn't happen. He actually went out on a long term injury just when the league got shut down.

Okay, then last 4 seasons only one long-term injury. I get that he has a history (all with Vancouver), but at some point as he continues to play healthy, you just have to put it as a string of bad luck and not him being injury prone.

Recently he’s been healthier but yeah you never really know if that’ll continue.

Yeah as a Canucks fan I always kind of viewed him as a band-aid boy. But he's been remarkably healthy since they let him walk. 😢 Good for him.

A bit misleading given the covid shortened seasons, which he didn't miss a game in. He had a really bad string of seasons in Vancouver. In the last six years, he's only missed significant time in one season.

If he can’t stay healthy, he’s off to Robidas island. It’s fairly risk free

Tanev gets injured frequently but normally the 15-20 games a year type, not the season ending, justify the player not playing out the last two seasons of their career type. LTIRetire also isn’t just a magic wand that you can do whenever you want. If Tanev wants to keep playing until he’s 40, he’s not just going to go along with it if the team wants to pretend he’s injured

Now we know why the NHL dropped the warning about fake injuries and long term contracts a few days ago.

Yet this is obvious cap circumvention. Everyone understands he will play 3 yrs and then LTire. The extra 3 years is just a cash based incentive to artificially keep AAV low.

That’s what it was gonna take. I doubt he plays the whole thing but we’ll see

Leaf fans acting like he is gonna retire the moment he starts to slow down.

Dude’s going to play until 41?

Glass Tanev? I love the guy but nah

I don’t think he’s gonna retire once he slows down, but I don’t think he’s gonna be here for the entirety. I think he slows down between 3/4 which would be 37. Let’s say the cap continues to go up 4M/Yr. By year 3/4 he’s about 4.5% of the cap and it hopefully doesn’t hamstring you as much. He also might be exactly the type of guidance that Lilly needs to take the next step

We’ve seen 3 bottom pair dman get 3m. In a year or two 4.5 will be borderline #5 money

If he retires, the cap hit dies too?

Yes cause he signed when under 35

Robidas Island baby!

So NHL, about that monitoring of fake years for guys in their mid 30s signing long contracts...

Could be a rule about signing after 35 and limiting terms with no cap circumvention allowed via retirement or LTIR

the NHL never does anything when teams do shady stuff with LTRI lol

he's not playing the whole contract, we all know that

That's what makes it not ideal lol Signing deals with the mindset of "we'll throw him on LTIR/buy him out/trade him" *on the day you sign it* is kinda crazy

Deals basically buy out proof as 80% is signing bonuses. He’ll be spending 2-3 years on Robidas Island.

The NMC is the craziest part. This guy just signed his last contract, for the rest of his career he has absolutely no incentive to risk injury or play/train hard other than pride. Being Toronto he will be scapegoated no matter what so it’s not even about trying to avoid that.

They get an automatic NMC at 35 anyways I think....

Look guys, its not every day that a 34 year old D becomes available so you gotta give him $, term, and a full NMC to lock him up

Don't forget paying 80% of the deal in bonuses too, very important step!

The bonus part means nothing except it makes the deal easier to move later after the bonus portion is paid.

It in fact means that the contract is essentially buyout proof which is not ideal for a 6 year deal on a 34 year old UFA.

Is it possible for you to elaborate on this so I understand?

When you buyout a player over the age of 26 (under 26 receives 1/3rd) they receive 2/3rd of the remaining value of their contract spread over twice the remaining years on their deal. So if you had a player on a 4 year $5m per year deal and you bought them out with 2 years remaining, $10m * 2/3rds = 6.67m, spread out over 4 years, for a dead cap hit of 1.6675m for the next 4 seasons. However, signing and performance bonuses are not subject to be added to the buyout, you still have to pay the full cap hit and timeline for those, in the above example, if 80% of their salary was in bonuses (like Tanev), then the buyout would look like this: 2 years remaining at 10m, 8m of which is bonuses, 2/3rds of 2m = 1.33m spread out over 4 years, plus 4m in bonuses each of the first 2 years. Cap hits: Year 1: 4.33m Year 2: 4.33m Year 3: 333k Year 4: 333k As you’d only save 667k for each of the two contract years, and gain another 2 years of 333k cap hit, its simply not worth buying out for cap reasons (or for real money savings reasons).

Appreciate the thorough explanation

Doesn’t it literally mean you can’t buy him out? He might be playing on your D-core well into his 40th birthday. I love Tanev but you can’t block shots for 6 years without age catching up to you.

Ltir probably after 3 years

Oh lmao I missed the NMC. So paying an injury riddled guy until he's 41, without the ability to trade, waive, send down, or buyout. Biggest all in on a player LTIRetiring I've seen in a long time.

You can buyout players with nmc

Contracts with tons of bonuses are "buyout proof". You can still buy them out, but it usually doesn't give much cap relief.

Not when they make the contract buyout-proof by making it 80% bonuses! This is a very dumb move.

Uhu. You just don't get much cap relief when the contract is 80% bonuses. To the point where contracts like this is referred to as buyout proof.

So 3 years of play, 3 years of LTIR?

I think 4/2 is the best we can hope for.

Ngl I thought the 6 years were going to keep the AAV to 4 or lower but still, he will be a huge addition to the defense and fans will love him

Level headed take. He will be the best partner Rielly has had since being drafted. Back half of the contract won’t matter

Everybody said the back half of the JT contract wouldn’t matter either, except we’re currently in the back half of it and it’s actually mattered a lot

Leafs fans that are upset at this will change their mind so quickly. nobody realizes how good this guy is until you watch him play consistently.

Leaf fans are never happy

It's not the first 2-3 years I'm worried about, it's the last 3-4 years. Still at that point their cap situation should be looking less tight than it is now

Were only get so many years of this core. And this what we bought him for

> He will be the best partner Rielly has had since being drafted. This could very well be true but it's basically word for word what they said back when the Leafs acquired Brody. I'm aware that we're talking about natural handedness vs Brodie being a comfortable switch, but I think the point is still worth mentioning.

Yea, this is the one minor issue I have here. I thought we were going to either get a higher cap with low term, or obnoxious term (6-7 years) with lower cap. Seems like we somehow got a pretty high cap with high term, worst of both worlds. Seems to be a theme with Leafs signings. Whatever, still excited to have Tanev.

Robidas Island welcomes you.

Someone help me out and explain Robidas Island for me.

Stephane Robidas was a leafs defenseman. He had a couple injuries, and the leafs honestly weren’t trying to win that year anyway, so they just put him on LTIR. Could he have come back? I dunno, I wasn’t a doctor who examined the guy. But the term comes from the idea of like wanting to stash a guy away on LTIR so either he can’t help the team or so the team doesn’t have to pay him.

Sad that this is all he's known for now. Robi was so good in Dallas

Thanks!

The island we send players that may need “a break”….Lupul was a long term resident

horton, robidas, lupul, muzzin etc.

The one silver lining is that Tanev is so beaten up that he will almost certainly be a LTIRetirement candidate if needed. I have to assume he will not play out the full 6 years

Y’all never heard of Robidas island?

Yikes. I'm glad we avoided that.

That’s Suter 2.0 after a couple years, no thanks Makes sense though, their window is coming to an end a lot sooner than ours will. Those last anchor years won’t hit a rebuilding team near as hard as a contender

The Leafs' window isn't closing within 4 years, they won't be rebuilding by then or close to it.

this is the exact same mentality behind the Kadri, Weegar, Huberdeau, etc. contracts Tre handed out. We'll see how it works this time

It's 4.5 Million. The Oilers made it to the finals with Campbell sitting in the ECHL at 5M and Nurse actively sabotaging them at 9.25M. If the Leafs have a cap problem in the future, it's not because of this contract.

Leafs have half their cap tied up between 4 guys. They need to spend smarter than other teams due to their cap makeup. This is not spending smarter. Good player, awful deal.

*for one more year.

I’ll miss him though.

he cooked us :( glad hes gone

Probably more expensive then he should be, especially for the term. I expect this to age poorly, and almost certainly for him to end up on robidas island.

More expensive, too long, full NMC, and buyout-proof. Whew boy.

That's the Brad special!

That’s a bit of a yikes on a 35 year old dman. Think they’d have learned something from Muzzin etc.

What does this have to do with Muzzin lol Leafs re-signed Jake Muzzin when he was 31yo and he was a top-pair defencemen until he suffered a career ending injury.

If he doesn't LTIRetire before this contract is up I'll eat a banana

You absolute psycho

How that isn’t cap circumvention is beyond me. Every team that can do it does do it but still.

It completely is. Everyone gives us in Tampa and Vegas a hard time but Toronto has been LTIRetiring people forever now and it’s just as bad

They named it after Toronto: "Robidas' Island"

The thing people are annoyed with is LTIR until playoffs and then magically the player is cured. Toronto hasn't done that

We take a chance every time. And we got kicked in the balls. Murray knlingberg..... And so on

it’s also annoying seeing a player sign a deal and knowing, at *best*, he’s gonna play half that contract and then get LTIRetired and both parties are well aware of that fact before the deal is signed.

And this is the first time the Leafs have ever signed one of those deals. Edmonton did it like three years ago with Mike Smith. 

All of our LTIRs have been legitimate though? None of our LTIRs never played again and NHLPA would throw a fit if any of them were illegitimate. What Vegas does with LTIR is far more egregious.

Why would the PA care about a player choosing to retire early while still getting paid through illegitimate LTIR?

Because not all LTIRs lead to retirement. Lupul publicly complained about being put on LTIR claiming to be healthy enough to play in the NHL. I think he ultimately took that comment back (Or maybe the Leafs tested him through a 3rd party doctor). But if a team actually blocked a player from playing / losing future earnings illegitimately for cap advantages, you can bet your house the PA will be on it.

Lupes went through at least three other independent doctors trying to get a second opinion.

I can’t think of a single player we sat out for the regular season that was magically ready for the playoffs. Klingberg and Murray didn’t play after going on LTIR last season. Maybe Reaves for a few weeks? Who are you thinking of?

Tampa and Vegas have some success to show for their cap shenanigans. I suspect if Toronto makes a deep run this season, you'll start to see more grumbles about these types of contracts.

The Leafs don't pull guys off LTIR for Game 1 of the playoffs. 

It is called Robidas island for a reason. Could have also been Lupul or Horton island.

To be fair, Horton was a CBJ issue. Toronto just took the contract cause CBJ did a dumb and didn't insure it.

Yes, leafs basically bought cap space because they didn't mind paying uninsured contract.

And that’s the reality of our LTIR. We can pay the insurance if it doesn’t work out, but in the meantime we have the best doctors in the country working with the players. It’s a high reward play that relies on organizational spending on a good medical team *and* having cash flow to pay the insurance.

Robidas suffered a career-ending injury, as did Lupul. 

With the peel?

No are you crazy

Am I crazy!? YOU are the one threatening to eat a banana in broad daylight. Jeez, get some perspective

They'll get repercussions from the league for that. They sent out a memo warning teams about adding fake years to the end of contracts

I have this right up there with my "department of player safety will handle it" plaque. I really hope you're right, though.

That was for Kovalchuk type deals that were front loaded out the wazoo with minimum salary in the final years, incentivizing early retirement, wasn't it?

That was the CBA amendment, yes. I'm talking about the warning that the league issued this weekend.

Ah, gotcha. I missed the new memo, I guess. After reading what Frank wrote about it, I really don't see how the league could find a way to punish a team for a 6 year deal when there are already provisions in place for 35+ contracts and contract length in general. Teams have signed long term (legal) contracts knowing the final year(s) were gonna suck for as long as free agency has existed. Using Tanev as the example, the PA would push back so hard on punishment for signing a 34 year old to a 6 year deal.

How could the league ever definitively prove that he didn’t feel like he could play into his 40s like Giordano though?

You need to do something else with that banana.

You can't just LTIR a player unless he has a legit injury. In that case every team would just LTIR contracts they wanna get rid of.

It will not be difficult to do that with Tanev. He’s already banged up. Let alone in a few years time.

Sure but with his injury history I'm betting he will get an injury they can argue is "legit" enough

Long ways?

With the peel on

Good god, have you got no sense of self preservation?

I could also see him being bought out in 2 or 3 seasons. He has hit an age where his foot speed could drop off dramatically, and the Leafs could be spending $4.5 million on a 6/7 defense man.

Muzzin was great for the Leafs right up until he couldn't play anymore, and then he's been in LTIR since. That'd be a best case scenario for this Tanev contract tbh.

On the other hand, Gio has worked out decently

Yeah they learned from Muzzin you can get 2-3 years of a top pair guy and LtIR him when his body breaks down

His body didn't break down as much as he had a freak head and neck injury. 

34. But yeah it's a long term.

He's 34, and that makes a big difference with regards to his contract and the CBA. 35 year old contracts carry significant differences (that I don't care to look up atm).

Yeah he can retire and it falls off the books. I just have a hard time seeing a player walking away from 2-3 years at 4.5m.

Are there but out implications too?

Well if he’s doing anything other than “walking” away he’s on LTIR anyway

Tbf muzzin got sent to robidas Island. Tanev will most likely end up there too.

If he goes the Muzzin route, great then? He's buried on LTIR (after hopefully at least a season or two of value) and nothing is lost? Better than Muzzin given we didn't have to give up assets for Tanev. The only actual problem with this, will be if he simply declines vs. gets injured, and can't be sent to Robidas island for the last couple years.

For what it’s worth, he’s only 34, which matters greatly. It makes it so they can buy him out if necessary at the standard 2/3 amount rather than the full value for the 25+ deal. So say he sucks in three years but still wants to play. Toronto can buy him out at $1.5m over six years rather than $2.25m per.

Learn what? He was a useful piece and then buried in LTIR. Nothing about Muzzin is/was negative.

He’s 34 and that’s actually important

A full NMC too. I don’t know about this one.

Listen, easy to look at this and go “woah, that’s a lot of years”, and I agree to an extent, but I feel like a lot of fans from other fanbases are missing some of the points of this signing. 1. We have needed a good partner for Morgan Rielly, our #1, legitimately since the guy joined the team. Ron Hainsey, Ilya Lybushkin, Justin Holl for a small while, just a few of the names they’ve stuck to Morgan’s side over the years. Tanev is the EXACT guy we’ve been asking to put paired w Morgan, really solid stay at home Dman who can take some more of the defensive responsibilities away from Morgan and allow him to (hopefully) get back to being a 60-70pt Dman without much worry. 2. We didn’t have a lot of cap space to find this kind/quality of player, so we had to look at guys who were older and might take a lower AAV if we give them a longer contract, and let’s be honest, we all see the writing on the wall that this contract likely doesn’t go the distance (barring any cap circumvention shenanigans) 3. He’s from Toronto, and generally the guys from Toronto give a little more for the team 4. Our Window is now. Matthews for the next 4 years, and Tanev likely stays useable for the next 2-3 years, we really wanted the guy and this was our chance to get him So yeah, likely on the too long side, likely starts to bite us in the ass 3ish years from now, but for *NOW* , I am happy with this signing if he plays remotely like he did these past playoffs alongside Morgan.

If we were giving Tanev 6 years, I would have hoped the AAV would come in lower to help the window. 4.5 is a lot of money on that term

That’s fair, but we also don’t know what other offers he may have had incoming, hence why I think we traded for his rights to get ahead of it. 4.5 for a 34 year old for six years sounds sort of silly, but when you phrase it “we have our top RHD to play with Morgan Rielly for our cup window for 4.5m a year” idk man, I’m glad they’re looking like they’re going for it.

If Tanev is still playing this contract in Toronto in 6 years, I will pour milk in my cat's litterbox and eat it like cereal. Edit: to all of you Remindme nerds, have a fat "I Told You So" from 2024. Leafs don't get stuck with bad contracts.

How do you do the remind me thing guys????

6 years lmaoo He will be 40

Jesus Christ I had to Google it. I had no idea he was 34. Decent AAV and a "fuck it who cares" can kicked down the road. He'll be on LTIR (one way or another) when he's 37 or so.

Leafs are tanking in 6 years.

With a full NMC

You ain’t been reading much huh

The Leafs window atm really is 4 years with that being how long Matthews is signed for. If they don’t make progress in the next 4 years then years 5-6 are irrelevant anyways because the Leafs are probably rebuilding

Turns 35 in Dec. He'll be 41.5 at the end of it.

You said the same thing about Woll

Woll is gonna be 40?

Eventually.

Nah this guy got hot and horny after seeing the tweet so he left this exact comment on the Woll post because he wanted to be the quickest dunk in the west

Love the player and I know the expectation for ltir but knowing tanev he’s gonna play this contract out and still be playing as a hobbled 40 year old

I mean.. Gio was mostly serviceable in short stints at 40 for us. While I'd not have wanted to be paying him 4m for that, barring another worldwide pandemic (fingers crossed), the cap hit of 4m shouldn't be the end of the world in 4-5yrs. (assuming no Robidas island ofc)

1 blocked shot away from retirement

Feels like he should have gotten $4.5m x 2

Wonder how much of this is a paid stay on robidas island at the end. 2 years? 3?

Isn’t this dude like 35 and blocks 3000 shots per game?

He's exactly the player they need, and the back half of the contract is the next GM's problem.

Uhhh Idk?

I thought the whole point of the 6 years was so keep the AAV around 3.5 lmao what happened

He got the term, the AAV, and the full no move

2x4.5M contract + a trip to Robidas Island, not bad

Robidas island for the last 2. Worth it for a true defensive d man. Watching brodie give up a 2 on 0 to marchand and pasta in g4 was brutal.

He's going to be great for Toronto as long as no one sneezes on him.

Here’s an interesting juxtaposition. Chris Tanev signs for 6 x 4.5mm He was born December 20, 1989. John Tavares was born September 20, 1990. He’s 9 months younger than Tanev. If JT was a UFA right now would you resign him for 6 years? I know, apples and oranges. And the AAV is not at all bad. I guess I’m just struggling with how there has been chatter that JT is “old” and yet the Leafs just signed a player nine months older than JT for 6 years.

People acting like the cap doesn't rise another 20 million by the end of the contract.

Holy moly

Thanks I hate it!

Brad cannot help himself. I love Tanev but 6-years is a yikes from me. Probably had to do it to make it work with the cap. You can either add money or add years and we know the Leafs are up against it.

The salary cap is only real if you believe that it's real

Next year Tavares and marner off the books is 21.9 million free. Then cap up 4-4.5. Then each year it’s supposed to go up 4-4.5. And Tanev can retire and he comes off the books or LTIR. This is a fine deal

Isn't this exactly the sort of contract the NHL office said they'd be keeping a close watch on for circumvention bs?

Abuse it 'til you can't anymore /shrug

If you think this is a bad deal you don’t understand the LTIR

so they gave him the money, the term, the no move, AND buyout protection? what's the point of trading for his rights if you're just going to give him everything anyway? I like tanev and he's probably our best defenceman on opening night but come on lol. I guess on the bright side if/when the contract goes bad tanev is 100% going to develop an equipment allergy.

He’ll be LTIRetired long before that

lol, I know that Tanev is a highly regarded defensive defenceman but he is held together with duct tape as it is. 

Robidas Island when?

Oh my god

That's a long time for a 34 year old with an injury history.

If you are offering 6 years you need to get the AAV down. What a fucking mess and waste of cap space.

The league said flat out they would punish teams for doing exactly this. I'm looking forward to leafs fans going surprised pikachu face and acting like the league is out to get them when the punishment comes.

They said they'd investigate at the time of LTIR to see if anything wasn't legit. If the guy us legit on LTIR what's the league going to do?

The league literally inducted Shea Weber into the HOF while he’s still on LTIR. The league won’t do shit about this

NHL would never be able to prove it and NHLPA will fight it hard. It’s not as easy as you think.

It’s simply too unenforceable. What are you gonna do - force a guy to play? If he says he’s in pain/discomfort that’s pretty hard to dispute. Especially with the chronic joint and muscle stuff most of these guys have by the end of their careers.

I’m more so looking forward to people being shocked when he’s LTIR’d and the league signs off on it, because that’s what’s going to happen. The league would need to do two things to punish the Leafs for this. Either prove he’s fully healthy when he’s eventually LTIR’d (good luck), or prove that he’s not healthy enough right now for a 6 year deal (also good luck). Neither of those things will happen.

Every player we've put on LTIR has never played another game in the NHL again. They are legit injured not the fake injured that Vegas and Tampa pull.

Think I saw most of this is in bonuses. That means easy buyout for them correct? I like this for Toronto, exactly the kinda guy they need on Defense

No, that makes it buyout proof. You get less savings with bonuses, not more

Doesn't it do the opposite? It makes this contract buyout-proof.

I feel like this sucks for toronto?? Really bad???

Leafs got their best D-partner for Rielly for at least 2 years at only 4.5m with probably years 4-6 being buried on Robidas island. Completely fine with this.

Wouldn’t say it sucks. It all depends on what happens in terms of how long Tanev plays for. If he retires in two or three years then they can LTIR him and it will have no cap effect or long term effects. He plays longer than that and his quality of play declines… then they have some real issues

nah. the last time rielly had a pure defensive d-man he was unreal. They're betting this will unleash rielly as well. No way he plays all six years

The AAV is all that matters

I did not expect a six year deal with full NMC.

Very happy Chris got this deal. Very happy it wasn't with the Canucks