Toronto Maple Leafs: Does Nylander Have Any Leverage?
Contract negotiations between William Nylander and the Toronto Maple Leafs have stretched into the regular season, leaving Nylander with very little leverage in his favour.
With each day (possibly) burning a deeper hole in Nylander’s pockets, the Toronto Maple Leafs seem prepared to make him come to them in negotiations.
Darren Dreger of TSN has reported that William Nylander’s asking price could be as high as $8M/year. Recent comments from Leafs management support the rumours that Nylander’s asking price is significantly higher than the team is willing to pay.
While it’s obvious why Nylander would ask for so much – no one knows how good he can be, he hasn’t finished developing or hit his peak yet, and a long term deal would be buying out his best years, not to mention three years of potential unrestricted free agency – the Leafs clearly want to get players to take less than they are worth in order to fit in the best team possible under the salary cap.
One reason that Nylander lacks leverage is that the Leafs are a good team with or without him. They don’t need him to succeed (even though he’ll obviously help). While teams in other situations have relied on their young star RFAs to carry them into the playoffs, the Leafs are not under that same pressure to sign Nylander.
The other reason Nylander lacks leverage is because of the CBA. While it’s obvious that Nylander is (or is going to be) an elite player, the CBA forces him to sign a contract before he’s fully proven what he is capable of. He wants to be paid on potential, while the team (and apparently the media) will make salary comparisons based on what he’s already done.
Recent history shows that players (such as Johnny Gaudreau) tend to do poorly in these negotiations. So unless Nylander is willing to miss the entire season, he has no leverage.
William Nylander
On the other side of the fence, Nylander makes the team much better and they’ll need him if they hope to avoid finishing second or third in the division and opening against the Lightning or Bruins in the Playoffs. The Leafs are clearly in need of good wingers, with only Mitch Marner currently resembling anything like a top line NHL winger on the current roster.
This points in Nylander’s favor might give him some leverage, were it not for the CBA which all but demands that he either undersell his prime years in exchange for long-term deal, or risk injury on a series of short term deals bringing him to free agency. With both player and team indicating they want a long term deal, it appears that Nylander won’t take this option.
From a long-term perspective, Nylander’s contract will also serve as a precedent for Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner’s contract negotiations after this season. This gives the team an even stronger incentive to out-wait Nylander and sign him to a cap-friendly contract.
Perhaps the most important twist in the Nylander negotiation is the curious league bylaw that could actually allow the Toronto Maple Leafs to benefit from waiting as long as possible to sign Nylander. As detailed below by CapFriendly, waiting until as late as December 1st could save the Toronto Maple Leafs around $300-450k/year on Nylander’s cap hit in years 2 and beyond.
https://twitter.com/CapFriendly/status/1045315053539545088
The higher cap hit would instead be transferred to the 2018-19 season, which serves the Leafs well as they have the 4th most cap space in the league this year.
Next. Leafs Are Wrong to Ask Players to Take Less. dark
As much as the Toronto Maple Leafs should be thrilled to have a player like Nylander in the organization, there are many reasons why Leafs management should make Nylander come to them in their current contract negotiations.