Two years ago at this time, Steven Stamkos was the player teams were lining up to meet with in the hopes of luring him away from the Lightning.
When it was all said and done, Stamkos decided to stay in Tampa Bay and although the teams in contention for him at the time missed out, they learned something from not landing Stamkos.
As per Pierre LeBrun, the Leafs are one of those teams that learned from their meeting with Stamkos, and he explained what they learned and what they did differently in their meeting with John Tavares this time around:
As LeBrun explained, some players want the billboards and the attention. Stamkos wasn't one of those players and having those big names (the mayor of Toronto and the CEO of Canadian Tire) on hand for the meetings backfired.
Drew Doughty has the same mindset as Stamkos and has talked about playing in Toronto in the past and what comes with playing in this city:
We're not sure if Tavares' mindset is the same, but from all accounts it sounds like the Leafs didn't employ the same strategy and that their meeting with him went well.
(H/T: Pierre LeBrun, TSN1050)
