Former Toronto Maple Leafs Captain sheds some light on whether John Tavares was on board with new direction

I think he's handled it very well, now was it his choice, you know nobody really knows -- and I know Johnny pretty good and he's a good person, he works his tail off, my son played with him for 3 years with the Marlies in the GTHL, so I know him very well -- was it his choice? Or was it kind of like 'what are you planning on next year? Do you wanna be back here and if you are...' You know, who knows? It's one of those things, but Johnny will be professional about it, there's no question

I think it was inevitable that it was going to happen at some point, Vaive said. I thought maybe they would've waited until the end of the season when John's contract was up to see where things were at that point, but, I mean, I'm not surprised.
The question is, is it going to make any difference in the long term as far as playoffs and that sort of thing? Vaive continued. I guess we're going to have to wait and see.