With still a number of restricted free agents around the league opting not to attend training camp, many people find themselves looking at the most prominent of them in Toronto Maple Leafs’ William Nylander, who still hasn’t come to an agreement with Toronto and rumor have the two sides being far apart. The 22-year-old winger, who was the eighth-overall selection back in 2014, has put up two solid 20-goal, 60-point campaigns and could be ready for a breakout season.
Regardless, negotiations seem to be at a standstill. Maple Leafs’ general manager Kyle Dubas did a Q&A with students from his alma mater, Brock University this morning and had an interesting response when asked when the team was going to sign Nylander.
“As soon as possible,” said Dubas. “If we want to sustain success here we can’t be setting any marketplace records.”
According to Kevin McGran of the Star, Dubas made it clear that the team wasn’t budging on its offer to Nylander, who is rumored to be seeking $8MM per season, while the Maple Leafs are offering around $6.5MM. Dubas also said he isn’t worried if Nylander misses some of training camp. Due to all its salary cap issues over the next several years, Dubas has to make sure not to overpay any one player, considering he still has to sign Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner to extensions as well.
While there is no confirmation of the $8MM salary demand from Nylander, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, in his most recent 31 Thoughts column, writes that he believes that Nylander is asking for Leon Draisaitl money at $8.5MM per season and is likely accurate for several reasons. He writes that agents are always high, but they are using the Draisaitl comparison since Draisaitl posted 129 points in his first two seasons, while Nylander has posted 122. Throw in the fact that Connor McDavid new contract last season pushed Draisaitl’s pricetag up, the same is likely to happen as Nylander will want to be near the salaries that Matthews and Marner will eventually get (not to mention the money that Tavares got this offseason).
Dubas and the Maple Leafs are hoping that Nylander will take a little less money being on a deep, dominant playoff team, something that other players have already done such as Tavares, Nazem Kadri and Morgan Rielly already have.
Nylander is free to hold out as long as he wants, that shouldn’t make him the enemy. But if he wants to be a part of a long term winning team he should take a small haircut on a salary. If he wants to be like draisaitl, and Matthews like mcdavid, expect the team as a whole to take a step back like Edmonton did after locking up single players to such high numbers.
Nylander isn’t better than Pastrnak and Pastrnak signed for a less than 8 million a season. Heck, he signed for less than 7 million a season. I don’t blame the Leafs for not wanting to give Nylander that much, especially when you consider that Mathews & Marner need new contracts after next season & that the Leafs still need to add a high end right d-men at some point.
Why should a player accept a scaled down offer from a team because they created a bad cap situation for themselves with other player signings? He shouldn’t have to pay the price because they can’t manage the payroll properly.
He wouldn’t be accepting a scaled down offer, he would be excepting a fair market deal. The fact is Draisaitl is an over pay for what he has produced. Why is Draisaitl contract the bench mark on how much a player should be paid?
Both Pastrnak and Nikolaj Ehlers who have both produced more point then Nylander over the last two season are being paid under 7 million per season.
Of all the players with an 8 million per cap hit or higher only Draisaitl and Eichel are about on par with Nylander. The rest are either way more proven then Nylander or just simply better.
Then look at all the players in 6 to 7 million range it is clear he belongs in there without a doubt. The fact he can only use one player as an example why he should be making 8 million means he is just reaching
Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander will take up almost half of Toronto’s salary cap, assuming all of them sign long-term extensions. I have to think that Nylander is the odd man out of this crop and may benefit most from a bridge deal and a trade for a top-4 d.
If it’s a short term contract that covers his RFA years & he is given a NMC that is the only offer I would take at $6.5mil/yr. Player needs to have control over his future if he is taking less in a contract.
Bottom line – his production wasn’t as stellar as Matthews or Marner last season. He’s had several droughts of pointless games over the last two seasons and looking at the overall production, he’s 4th on the list of signees that include Tavares, Matthews and Marner. Honestly, they could easily sign him at his 7-8M mark and then trade him for the needed top 5 d-man the leafs need. There are plenty of other teams who would take most of his salary at that price in order to think they could contend.