The long-awaited saga between William Nylander and the Toronto Maple Leafs is finally at an end. The Toronto Maple Leafs announced they have signed the holdout restricted free agent to a six-year, $45MM deal, according to CapFriendly. Nylander is expected to be on a plane from Stockholm to Toronto within 10 hours.
“We always tried to stay optimistic,” said general manager Kyle Dubas (via TSN’s Kristin Shilton). “We had our process and we have a great staff…it wasn’t really an emotional experience. It’s my duty to the organization to put the organization in the best possible spot with all our economics. We hope to always avoid [a standoff], but it’s a realistic situation.”
The deal has a complicated structure, especially for the first year. According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, Nylander’s first-year salary is pro-rated at 10MM (6.67MM), plus a $2MM signing bonus, which comes out to net $8.67MM and a $10.2MM AAV. In the remaining years of the deal, Nylander’s AAV is $6.996MM.
Here is a breakdown of the deal (via CapFriendly):
- 2018-19: $10MM salary + $2MM signing bonus = $10.2 AAV
- 2019-20: $700K salary + $8.3MM signing bonus = $6.97 AAV
- 2020-21: $2.5MM salary + $3.5MM signing bonus = $6.97 AAV
- 2021-22: $2.5MM salary + $3.5MM signing bonus = $6.97 AAV
- 2022-23: $2.5MM salary + $3.5MM signing bonus = $6.97 AAV
- 2023-24: $2.5MM salary + $3.5MM signing bonus = $6.97 AAV
For Nylander, it ends a long holdout as Nylander missed out on 59 days of the season, officially signing five minutes before the NHL deadline for him to sign an NHL contract this year. With rumors that Nylander had been holding out for $8MM and trying to force Dubas’ hand in the rookie GM’s first holdout negotiations, Nylander was forced to settle for under $7MM, which is a win for Dubas.
“I think all offers varied. I’m not going to get into where our offers started and where theirs started,” Dubas said. “I’m happy for our team and I’m happy for William. I wish we had been able to get this done before training camp…happy to add William.”
McKenzie also notes that Nylander received a 10-team modified no-trade clause in the final year of the deal as he is not eligible for a no-trade clause for another five years.
The 22-year-old center was considered to be a key piece of Toronto’s young core, but with the team’s salary cap having tightened up over the past two years with signings to major free agents Patrick Marleau and more recently to John Tavares, the team needed to prove that they could extend some of their younger players for discounts or be forced to break apart some of the team. Nylander is only the first of many of their future contract negotiations as Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner will both be restricted free agents this coming offseason and are expected to get paid even higher than Nylander. The team also have several other key contracts, including Nylander’s on-ice replacement this year in Kasperi Kapanen, who has played well enough to earn himself quite a raise in restricted free agency next season. Andreas Johnsson’s play should also get a boost in pay as a restricted free agent as well. The team also will have to factor in the contract of defenseman Jake Gardiner who will hit unrestricted free agency next season and needs to be locked up.
“I knew people were ready to jam that one down my throat,” Dubas said. “We hope all these guys will be career Leafs. That’s our goal, is to keep it together…We’ve had discussions with [Matthews and Marner’s agents]. We want to avoid a situation where all our players aren’t in training camp. Not [making history] in the way we’d like to [with Nylander deal].”
Despite the long holdout and his $8MM asking price, Nylander fared pretty well. The Maple Leafs had made it clear early in negotiations this summer that they weren’t willing to go past six years at $6MM, so to get an extra $1MM per year is impressive, considering the team’s budget.
TSN’s Darren Dreger was the first to report the deal.
Time to trade him to the KHL for TWO bags of pucks, some dirt AND THREE buckets of MAGIC BEANS!!!
You can’t trade a player to the KHL…… they leave by there own choice and the team gets nothing in return
“League” rules don’t apply here…we’re talking “Nylander” rules, with Papa Mike as Master Puppeteer. After all, they wanted to be the first UN-restricted RFAs in league history.
Gotta give Toronto credit, they cheat as well OR BETTER than Montreal as far as Canadian NHL franchises go. Minus the SC results, of course. LOL
Lets go Toronto League Office and Replay Center!!!!! So many legit replays, never going the leafs way in the slightest either. ;)
finally… we were given 6.9 mil by Savard weeks ago …
Will be intresting to see if this affects Matthews or Marner. Matthews is getting over 10m AAV. Marner will ask for 10 but probably get 8-9
Matthews is likely getting 11 and marner 8.5-9.25
Time for panarin to do the same
Now how many of those years will he see in Toronto is the question.
this one.
LMAO too funny, so glad the queefs were able to dole out a massive overpay for this chump in the 12th hour. Should set them up nicely to lose at least ONE of Marner/Matthews moving forward while NOT addressing that terrible defense. They barely beat Boston with the Bruins icing TWO defensive starters healthy last week, not to mention being BLOWN OUT by the Bruins in our first meeting this season with half the roster in tact.
oh bay and your quips lol
Aren’t you Montreal’s #1 fanboy, thepricewasright? Maybe you go BOTH ways, huh? ;)
Are you a really bad version of Jeff Seeley?
bigdaddytrump Go get some actual material, chode blower. Ouch….. ;)
Haha well good luck doin what your doin chief
hate Montreal so no.
You sure about that? Your previous ridiculous posts over the years say otherwise. Thanks for the laugh though.
If I thought you knew how to read I’d point out otherwise.
If I didn’t know HOW TO READ, I’d surely be Canadian. Booming economy, no? LOL.
You sure you aren’t Doc Holliday as well as lame thepricewasright? Bet he’s your “other persona” huh, Typhoid Mary?
OG post? Just facts. Sorry toronto cupcakes IF it hurts your feelings.
Queefs lol
Paper Bag Headed Nation… Toronto!!!!!
On that note, I’m sure going to miss hearing about the Nylander contract drama every day on here. Lets proceed to Marner AND Matthews contract rumors 24/7 next.
With all this media coverage, you’d actually think that toronto HAD WON something, like a Stanley Cup, in the last 50+ years. LOL….. guess pesky Boston is the only thing in these toronto chumps way, huh? BOTH TIMES you’ve been to the playoffs in the last DECADE!!!! HA HA HA HA. Better pay the Bruins off this year. Shouldn’t be a problem for the Toronto League Office, gotta love all the cheating Ontario style.
The Bruins will be lucky if they make the playoffs this year.
rex So like toronto’s chances of making the postseason? Better check out those standings…. and that’s WITH 9 guys injured on the IR. Didn’t your queefs have ONLY matthews out for a few weeks during all that losing? Hmmmm….. LOL
The bruins are the worst original 6 team in history
LOL d!ldo79….. uh, not really inbred. That would technically be the new yawk rangers, but don’t expect a turd like you to know that. Then again, the rangers didn’t need cheat to multiple SC Titles like detroit, montreal and toronto did. Cheating wasn’t needed for Chicago or Boston either. Sorry to burst your bubble, sport.
Enjoy the queefs losing in the 1st round AGAIN this season, if they even MAKE IT there. 52 years since the LAST ONE, but who’s counting? LOL talk about “the worst original 6 team”, chump.
In the first 7 months he gets paid $17 million of his 41 million in signing bonus. Makes that contract very tradeable. He will get dealt after that second signing bonus is paid next summer. After that he will only be owed 24 million over 5 years. His value goes way up at. that point.