Toronto Maple Leafs Are Wrong to Ask Players to Take Less

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a contract impasse with William Nylander.

The Toronto Maple Leafs President Brendan Shanahan spoke to the media the other day and made it pretty clear that he expects his players to take less money in order to help the team win.

What’s that you hear?  The sounds of another lockout?

Yeah, probably.

Dangerous Precedent

The Leafs are playing hardball with William Nylander because they have to sign four super-star players and field a competitive team under the salary cap. If they pay him what he deserves, they risk looking weak and causing Marner and Matthews to ask for more.

This is the equivalent of a rich guy complaining that his Mercedes doesn’t run as smoothly as his Porsche.

Yeah, if only I had your problems.

I want the Toronto Maple Leafs to win and I would like it if they could get discounts on all their best players.  But if I was an NHL player, why in the hell would I do that?

I think it would help the team if they made tickets available to their fans who can’t afford Armani suits.  I think it would really help the team if they didn’t charge $15 for a can of beer that normally costs $2.25.  I really think it would be beneficial if the owners of the Toronto Maple Leafs took it upon themselves to eliminate poverty in the city where they play.

You can see where I’m going with this.

Take the Money and Run

I have a job where I can get traded to any city at the drop of a hat, I can barely go out in public, and If you include training and practice, I probably work 12 hour days, seven days per week, twelve months out of the year.

I have an extremely limited time in which to make money, the corporations I work for are billion dollar entities who, even at the absurd price they pay a professional athlete, still make a profit off my labour.  I risk a life-altering injury every day I go to work, I am encouraged to play through pain and I have to travel excessively, and live away from my family.  Not to mention the airports.  Countless, endless, airports.

Oh and did I mention the thing I’m good at, my special skill, cannot be replicated by 100 people on this earth?

So no, I will not take more money to ‘help the team.,  Mr. Shanahan, that’s your job.  I didn’t tell you to spend nine million dollars between two guys who’s age almost adds up to 80.

Contracts Negotiations

Look , fans will always side with the team and ownership, even that is, in my opinion, morally wrong. I side with the players. They should get what they can, while they get it.

Nylander can sign a cheap deal that will take him to unrestricted free-agency and where he stands to get paid (by that time) maybe $10 million per year. Maybe more.

So if he is going to sell these years before he even knows what they are worth, the team should have to pay more than he is worth right now. They are negotiating a contract based on future performance for a player still improving.   Asking him to take a pay-cut for the good of the team is unfair,  even hypocritical (I believe Mr. Shanahan once signed an offer-sheet).

This doesn’t mean I think the team should just pay him whatever he wants.  Both sides should come to a reasonable compromise.

But it is not on the player to give the team a discount to help them win.  It is on the team to spend their money wisely so that they can win.  In what other job are you going to take less money for the good of the company that you do not own?  That is preposterous.

Romantically, you hope players care about more than just money. In reality, a team will cut their former captain and put him on waivers to save six bucks, so nuts to that.

I want the Leafs to win the Cup.  I just don’t think a guy who can do something hardly anyone else can do should take a pay cut to make it happen.

William Nylander deserves as much as he can get, and I fully support him holding out until he gets an offer he thinks is fair.

And don’t give me this ‘Tavares took less’ crap.   Tavares is 28 and already made tens of millions of dollars.  He can afford to take a risk that Nylander can’t, since there is no guarantee he stays healthy for his entire twenties like Tavares did.

Not to mention, Tavares may have taken slightly less contract money to come to Toronto, but as a player who was born in the GTA, and one of the game’s very, very best players, he stands to make double whatever his contract is in endorsements.  Endorsements that were not available to players who signed with Boston, Tampa or San Jose.  Taveres took less money only if you choose to see it in the most technical sense, so it’s a bad comparison.

Nylander isn’t marketable in the same way as Tavares, so it’s not like he can take the same view.

Nylander and the team should compromise, but the onus to do so shouldn’t be on the player.  Being a professional athlete is one of the only ways a “regular” person can become a millionaire, so I say, take what you can from the man while you can.