NHL Trade Rumors: John Tavares to Montreal Canadiens

The New York Islanders have begun to build their new arena in Belmont Park. The arena should be built by 2021. With the new arena announcement, the belief was that Tavares would negotiate an extension with the team. Everyone assumed that Tavares wants to stay on a team with the likes of Anders Lee, Josh Bailey, Nick Leddy, and Jordan Eberle.

Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos stated there have been zero contract talks between Tavares and management, and talks may not happen at all.

I'm told no talks, and none really coming in the foreseeable future here. I think that's bad news for Islanders fans. There's no question that many people linked the rink situation with Tavares moving forward here, and no question that he is stated that's one of the things I'm sure he was concerned with, with a lot of Islanders. 

But there seems to be a lot more boxes he wants checked off. The real feeling going into the new year is that he may wait this thing out. Perhaps talk a little bit after the regular season, but really the feeling is he may want to look at what's on the outside (on) July 1st.

There are many teams that would pursue him as a free agent including the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks, and Detroit Red Wings. With a bidding war between many teams, the superstar is not going to come cheap at over $10 million cap hit per season.

Canadiens' general manager Marc Bergevin has been looking for a #1 center for years. Bergevin does not have the assets to pull off a trade to acquire one, and his only option is to aggressively pursue Tavares as a free agent. Bergevin has the cap space available to make Tavares a very high paid player.

Will Tavares want to play with Shea Weber and Carey Price? TSN's Darren Dreger said on radio that Tavares wants to play for Montreal. With rumors that Tavares wants to test free agency, could this actually happen?