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Top 4 Concerns About the Toronto Maple Leafs

By James Tanner

TORONTO, ON - JANUARY 2: Connor Carrick #8 of the Toronto Maple Leafs battles for the puck against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the first period at the Air Canada Centre on January 2, 2018 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - JANUARY 2: Connor Carrick #8 of the Toronto Maple Leafs battles for the puck against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the first period at the Air Canada Centre on January 2, 2018 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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Toronto Maple Leafs
TORONTO, ON – MARCH 24: Toronto Maple Leafs center William Nylander (29) celebrates scoring a goal in the third period during a game between the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario Canada. The Toronto Maple Leafs won 4-3. (Photo by Nick Turchiaro/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Contracts

William Nylander missing training camp is a terrible thing for a team who expects to compete for the Stanley Cup.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have this year – one year only – in which Matthews and Marner are still cheap.  They need to use this year smartly because even though they’ll have years of a competitiveness, this situation will never come again.   It will never be this easy.

It’s simple – the Leafs will never, ever, get two players like Marner and Matthews this cheap again, which means they get to load up with more good players fitting in under the cap then a team normally can.

But not signing Nylander takes some of the advantage they have away. If he’s not on the team, if he’s not at full speed, the Leafs will be iceing a worse team than they can.

It’s unacceptable that they don’t just get his done.

Marner and Matthews

Worse, is the Leafs are playing with fire.  As anyone with eyes can tell you, Mitch Marner and John Tavares are poised to be among the best, if not the actual best, duo in the NHL.

It looks like they were made for each other, and that each of then will score 100 points.  That leaves Auston Matthews to personally destroy the second defensive unit of all other teams in the NHL.

So good luck paying them next year when the cap goes up and the NHL announces a new expansion team, with a lock-out looming and the two of them combining for 85 goals and 200 points.

The Toronto Maple Leafs should be doing everything they can to sign them now.  And maybe they are.  But they aren’t signed and until they are, it will concern me.

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