The Boston Bruins will get their meeting with John Tavares on Tuesday, according to TSN’s Darren Dreger.
In Los Angeles for a week of meetings with interested teams at the Creative Artists Agency offices that began on Monday, and less than a week from free agency, Dreger noted that the San Jose Sharks will also get their meeting with Tavares on Tuesday.
While nothing is confirmed, you would have to imagine that the Black and Gold braintrust meeting with Tavares includes B’s general manager Don Sweeney, head coach Bruce Cassidy, and team president Cam Neely at the very least.
It will be interesting to find out if one of the Bruins’ stars — be it former Team Canada teammates such as Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, or Boston captain Zdeno Chara — are spotted and confirmed as joining the B’s entourage for this pitch. Keep in mind that Bergeron, Marchand, and other players joined the B’s front office for their meeting with college free agent Jimmy Vesey back in August 2016, and that was Vesey while this is John bleepin’ Tavares. (Perhaps the entire roster is there.)
Speaking to this idea, it appears that the Sharks have brought some of their players into Los Angeles for their meeting, at least if we’re to read into the eyeball emoji that came with Sharks winger Evander Kane’s tweet late Monday night.
The 27-year-old free agent met with both the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders on Monday.
The Maple Leaf presentation reportedly included head coach Mike Babcock, general manager Kyle Dubas, and team president Brendan Shanahan. New York’s meeting with Tavares, which lasted over two hours and came with some stealthy moves into the CAA offices, reportedly featured head coach Barry Trotz and general manager Lou Lamoriello.
But the meetings won’t stop after Tuesday’s talks with the Bruins and Sharks. Tavares, one of six NHLers with at least 500 points since 2011, will continue his busy week with Wednesday visits from the Dallas Stars and Tampa Bay Lightning.
Tavares, who has 272 goals and 621 points in 699 career games, reportedly turned down an eight-year, $88 million contract extension from the Islanders in order to see what else was there on the open market and meet with potential suitors.