One Of The Core 4 Isn't Leaving

The Toronto Maple Leafs were able to break the nineteen year curse by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning in round one. The feeling of happiness was quickly erased eight days later when Leafs fans woke up on May 8th knowing their beloved team was in a 3-0 hole in their second round series versus the Florida Panthers. Only four teams in NHL history have come back from such a deficit and even the most faithful fans knew this roster probably didn't have what it takes to get it done.

Toronto's season ended with a Game 5 OT loss. Many of the hockey pundits started coming out saying the same thing like previous years that "One of the Core 4" has to go.

Maple Leafs' captain John Tavares has been in Toronto for five seasons now, four of them with the "C" on his sweater. The points have always been there in his time in Toronto but age catches up to us all. He was never known to be the greatest skater, as time goes by it is becoming more evident. His time on ice is slowing dropping as well. In his first season he averaged 19:05 compared to his 17:39 this season.

Much of the talk after the second round series loss has been how bad Toronto's top players performed in the series vs Florida. Tavares had just one point (and no goals) in Toronto's five games.

The 32 year old is signed for two more seasons with a cap hit of $11 million. Tavares has a no-movement clause in his contract meaning he can veto any trade and remain in Toronto.

During the end of the year locker room clean out Tavares was asked about his no-movement clause:

If Toronto wants to shake up this roster and trade one of their top players Tavares certainly won't be one of them from his comments.

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