New Maple Leafs defenseman Chris Tanev has confirmed that there were some extenuating circumstances that led to him signing in Toronto during free agency.
At the tail end of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs swung a deal with the Dallas Stars to acquire the negotiating rights of Chris Tanev, a player that the organization has long-coveted.
Tanev was one of the top pending UFAs at the time, and there was a great deal of speculation prior to the deal that Tanev was open to the idea of remaining in Dallas. However, when the dust had settled and the Leafs had completed the deal to acquire his rights, it became very clear, very quickly, that the Leafs were going to sign him before he was able to make it to the open market.
Tanev was thrilled to sign a 6-year deal worth $4.5M per season, securing another solid payday with another contending team, to play at home in Toronto, no-less. So, why did he opt to ink a deal in Toronto rather than remaining with the Dallas Stars? Taxes, as Tanev confirmed a few weeks ago, had a lot to do with it.
“You do have the lower state tax [in Dallas], but I’ve played in Canada for 14 years. I’m from here and my wife’s family is from close to here. There’s also a tax when you leave Canada to become a U.S. citizen there’s a departure tax to leave Canada.”
Tanev didn’t get into the specifics of what he might owe if he opted to leave Canada and become a U.S. citizen, but it’s probably safe to assume that the dollar amount was prohibitive. Also, as Tanev had mentioned, there were other factors in his decision to remain in Canada long-term.
“That plays a role into it and family reasons and obviously coming to a good team is a big part of that. I didn’t want to leave Dallas and go to a team that wasn’t trying to win. That’s a huge reason why this happened.”
However it happened, and whatever the determining factors were, I’m sure Leafs Nation is just thrilled to finally see the team bring in an elite shutdown defenseman to play alongside Morgan Rielly on the top pair.
Tanev has been one of the best defensive defensemen in the NHL for several seasons running and his success rate of killing plays and disrupting opposing rushes were attractive qualities to Leafs GM Brad Treliving, who was originally responsible for bringing Tanev to Calgary in the first place. Now reunited in Toronto, Treliving must be elated to have added such an astute defender to his blueline in Toronto, doing what he set out to do when he took over — help fix the blueline issues that have persisted for some time.
Tanev’s deal will run him through his 40th birthday, but there has been plenty of speculation that the Leafs don’t intend to have him play the full 6-year term of his deal, much to the displeasure of those who are accusing the Leafs of violating the terms of the CBA, even though they’re not actually breaking any rules in inking Tanev a 6-year deal.
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