Time for Toronto Maple Leafs to Fold to William Nylander

The Toronto Maple Leafs vs William Nylander saga has gone on for far too long.

Yes, we get it. The Toronto Maple Leafs have a bunch of players they need to sign and so they’ve got to play hardball with one of the best young players in franchise history to establish their toughness. Or whatever.

I’m just sick of the whole thing.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are not going to trade Nylander.  They are not going to lose him.  Dubas himself said “We can and we will.”  And so anything less than that is going to be seen as a huge failure.

Trading Nylander: Guaranteed Failure

Nylander sits the whole year: Failure

Therefore, they have only one option: sign him.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs William Nylander

This whole thing is getting ridiculous.  William Nylander’s point totals are artificially suppressed because he played less per game than 100% of other players who are his equals.

Had he been on the first power play unit and played the same minutes per game as all other players of his skill level, he’d have scored 80 odd points and been in the top ten in NHL scoring.

He only missed the top ten in 5v5 scoring by a couple of points, and he accomplished that while playing less than everyone else and with Matthews missing a quarter of the season.

Any intelligent look into his stats shows he’s not asking for too much money. It’s very clear that since his contract was up first, the Leafs are using him to establish a precedent.  Which is fine, but it’s just dragging on for too long.

I can’t stand to hear another person casually say that Marner deserves ten million dollars while Nylander should shut up and take six.  Even in Toronto where the takes are routinely horrible, this one stands out.

Two evenly matched players, one (Nylander) who does slightly better at 5v5, and they should have a four million dollar salary difference?  Get real!

The fact is, Nylander deserves to be paid.  His 61 points don’t even come close to showing his true level.  For example, one prominent sports writer tweeted out yesterday saying it was ridiculous for a guy ranked under 100th in total scoring to ask for top 30 money.  And he said this with a straight face while collecting a huge paycheck.

And yet, like I said, anyone who takes two seconds to look into the context of the 61 points can see that Nylander was and is extremely close to being a top ten scorer.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have made their point.  Time to pay the kid and move on.  Hopefully with an apology for the needless beating his reputation has taken.