While the mutual preference of both the Maple Leafs and winger William Nylander would be to get a long-term deal done, Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reports that this no longer appears to be an option. He notes that there isn’t an AAV that is high enough for Nylander’s liking that fits in with Toronto’s salary structure for 2019-20 and beyond.
With that in mind, the Leafs are basically down to two options – either sign him to a bridge contract or trade him and by all accounts, the latter route is something they have no interest in going at this point nor has Nylander requested a move.
Accordingly, the bigger question now is how long the bridge deal will be. Although the 22-year-old has gone through his entry-level contract, only two of those seasons qualified as counting towards UFA status as he failed to play in 40 games back in 2015-16. As a result, Nylander is still five years away from being able to become an unrestricted free agent. That gives Toronto the opportunity of pursuing a three-year bridge pact instead of the standard two while still leaving him with a couple of arbitration-eligible seasons at the end of the deal. In doing so, they’d also have a much better idea of what they can afford long-term as by then, both winger Mitch Marner and center Auston Matthews will be locked up as well.
As most core players coming off of their entry-level deals sign long-term deals, there aren’t many comparable contracts in recent years to work with. One that would be close is Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov. Following two straight seasons of over 60 points (same as Nylander), the Russian inked a three-year, $14.3MM contract. That took up 6.53% of the salary cap at the time; that percentage of the current cap today would work out to an AAV of just over $5.19MM which would seemingly represent the ceiling of a Nylander bridge deal. A contract like that could very well be back-loaded as well to yield a higher qualifying offer at its expiration.
Toronto GM Kyle Dubas has stated on many occasions that he believes that he can keep the core of the team together even after bringing in John Tavares this offseason. Given the state of where things are, it appears that he’ll have to settle for giving Nylander a short-term deal to make that happen.
how big is this “core”? essentially it sounds like Tavares, Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Reilly.
After this year they have Matthews, Marner, Kapanen, and Gardiner all as FA’s to lock up. Safe to say Gardiner is gone as he is a guy who takes all the blame for any Leaf suffering, although it’s safe to say the blue line in their downside. Major raises need to happen to the other 3 especially as long as Kapanen is playing 1st or 2nd line and racking up points. So the leafs need to find enough cash to pay Matthews Marner Kapanen, and upgrade their defense, all while still committing $11 to Tavares, $6.25 to Marleau, $4.5 to Kadri, $5 to Rielly, $4.5 to Zaitsev, $5 to Andersen, and $5.3 to Horton (can be placed on LTIR once season starts but must be compliant before day one of 2019-20 season), plus $1.2 of Kessel’s contract due to trade. That’s $42.75 of a roughly $80 cap tied to 6 players. Add those deserved raises and something has to give. They cannot keep Kapanen, Matthews, Marner, and Nylander and ice a whole team. They likely have to lose 3 of their “core” guys in order to be cap compliant.and that is while keeping that horrid defense.
while I somewhat agree, The leafs know next year is the biggest year. after that marleau comes off, Horton comes off and there is your Matthews money right there.
hainsey and Gardiner won’t be back and I can arguably see kadri being a trade chip.
Also I honestly don’t buy they aren’t looking to trade nylander. I buy they may not be exploring it right now. but imagine what power they may have if they can get a 3 year extension at 5 million. That’s a young trade chip with 2 more years left after this AND still isn’t UFA eligible. That’s your likely defensive replacement for Gardiner.
WTF cares? Zzzzzz