Tavares Watch: Still waiting...

Looks like we’ll be waiting some more.

An all-day vigil in the John Tavares free agency saga yielded nothing on Friday. No news, no sign of a decision, no rumblings about which of six teams (Sharks, Lightning, Stars, Bruins, Maple Leafs, Islanders) he met with this week would be in the lead for his services.

The conventional wisdom is that the closer he gets to Saturday night without an announced decision, the more likely he is going somewhere other than the New York Islanders, who are the only team that can offer him an eight-year deal — an option that will expire at the end of Saturday.

But who knows what he’s weighing at this point in the process? Could be any number of financial, competitive, lifestyle and legacy factors. (Maybe like the rest of the market waits for him, he was just waiting for Gibson and Hegelson to sign!)

Given the hysteria and often abject rumor-mongering that has accompanied this year-plus process, it is pretty remarkable the absolute silence that surrounded proceedings all day Friday. Even media prone to say “I just have a feeling he’s going to X” didn’t pipe up with speculation.

Hopefully he and his agent is not using these hours to wiggle out better terms — not that {wink wink} anything beyond “general parameters” can be discussed with non-Islander teams — because while the Islanders very much need Tavares, they don’t need to bid against themselves all the way into cap-max territory.

Technically, given all the variables, Tavares could even decide he wants to take it into next week, when teams can truly bid with real money and terms. It’s his life.

We’ll just sit right here, waiting, and drinking.