Toronto Maple Leafs Should Make Rasmus Sandin Wait

According to Luke Fox from Sportsnet, contract negotiations between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Rasmus Sandin are at a standstill.

Toronto general manager Kyle Dubas reportedly offered Sandin the same two-year deal that Timothy Liljegren signed in April.

Liljegren’s new deal is worth $1.4 million a season. Many believe that Sandin is asking for more than $2 million a season. In July, Elliotte Friedman from Sportsnet reported that Sandin is seeking a similar deal to Ethan Bear ($2.2 million) or Adam Boqvist ($2.6 million). (Salary cap info from capfriendly.com)

The problem for Sandin is that those players have played more games. So he doesn’t have much leverage there. The only advantage he has is Toronto will not want to risk losing him. However, if Sandin and his agent want to play hardball, I think Toronto should wait them out and make Sandin miss playing time. Sandin’s agent is Lewis Gross. The same agent who played hardball with Dubas for William Nylander in 2018.

During the Nylander negotiation, Nylander missed playing time to get the deal he wanted. Sandin might end up doing the same, but Dubas now knows Mr. Gross’s tactics. It would be best for Dubas to wait them out and get a deal that works well for the team.

Toronto Maple Leafs Need to be Resilient

In hindsight, the Nylander deal for $6.9 million a season looks good now, but it didn’t when he signed it.

The same might happen for Sandin, but teams should stop paying players on potential and start paying them for accomplishments. Sandin only has 28 points in 88 NHL games, so why should he earn the same as Boqvist (51 points in 128 games)? The fact is, he shouldn’t.
(Stats from hockey-reference.com)

Dubas has said that Liljegren and Sandin are the future of the Toronto Maple Leafs. There is only so much salary cap space to keep everyone happy. I hope Dubas and Sandin can reach an agreement before the season starts, but hopefully, it is for $2 million or less per season.

The last thing Dubas needs right now is another Nylander-type situation. He needs to convince Sandin to sign for under $2 million or make Sandin miss the start of the regular season.

If Sandin wants to play, he’ll need to sign. There is the risk of an offer sheet from another team, but it is best not to worry about that until it happens. For now, Dubas needs to focus on getting Sandin to sign a team-friendly deal.