Islanders captain John Tavares is expected to decide on whether or not he will enter the interview period on Saturday, per TSN's Darren Dreger.

The interview period, which allows teams to pitch the free-agent Tavares before contract talks can begin, starts on Sunday.

Islanders co-owners Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin have set everything up on a hockey operations standpoint to entice Tavares to re-sign with the team that drafted him first overall back in 2009. They hired Lou Lamoriello as their new team president, and 2018 Stanley-Cup winning coach Barry Trotz joins the Isles as well.

"I think the Tavares situation is in good hands," Trotz said on a conference call on Thursday. "The great thing is that Lou is in constant contact with John and they've had great dialogue. Obviously I've reached out to him and had a great conversation."

Trotz added that Tavares is crucial for the Islanders' future.

"Obviously John is such a big part of the team, we talked, " Trotz said. "We talked about a lot of things, like the vision. We talked about where he was. We talked about the team, the areas we feel we can fix, areas we feel we can improve upon. It was a great conversation."

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