Isles filed tampering charge against the Leafs after Tavares signing!

The whole ordeal revealed:

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HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Isles filed tampering charge against the Leafs after Tavares signing!
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This wasn’t revealed at the time where New York Islanders fans were heartbroken and frustrated to hear that John Tavares had signed a huge contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs back in the summer of 2018. Can you imagine if they found out that their general manager Lou Lamoriello had filed a filed a tampering charge against the Leafs right after they made the signing of Tavares official. 

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman revealed the juicy details on the 31 Thoughts podcast on Tuesday, explaining that “it did not go very far, but there was an investigation that cleared the Leafs.”

The funny thing about the tampering charge is that Lamoriello was a member of the Maple Leafs probably around the time the Maple Leafs were looking to put most of their money to land Tavares as a free agent. 

And so, if someone knows there was tampering, it is Lou! 

While Tavares explained right after the signing of his seven-year, $77-million contract that it was a dream come true to be a member of the team he grew up cheering for, it might not have been enough for the Islanders to convince them that there was no tampering in his decision process. 

We do not know how long the investigation took to clear the Maple Leafs, but we can only imagine what would have happen if it had been proved that tampering had indeed taken place! 

“You start to think about back when you were a kid and how fun it was watching the Leafs growing up. … At the end of the day I felt like it was a rare opportunity I couldn’t pass up," said Tavares, once he signed in Toronto. 

Lou also saw it as too good to be true… 

Source: Sportsnet