Toronto Maple Leafs: Ramsus Sandin Needs to Sign Right Now

Rasmus Sandin  needs to sign a new contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He simply is not a good enough, or well established enough player to hold out for more money.

Injuries are continuing to pile up for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but Ramsus Sandin continues to sit-out, hoping for a few more bucks or a longer-termed contract.

It’s an absolutely terrible decision for Sandin to make, and it’s only going to end up hurting his career.

In 88 career games, yes you read that right, Sandin has six goals and 28 points. The former 29th overall draft pick of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft is a great prospect, but he’s nothing more than that right now.

For some reason it feels like he thinks he’s owed the world, yet he hasn’t played close to as many games as some of the players in his draft class. Rasmus Dahlin, Quinn Hughes and Noah Dobson, were all drafted higher than Sandin and are making between $4-8M on longer-term deals, but they proved it.

They’ve had multiple years under their belts, instead of Sandin, who only played 51 games last year and spent most of the campaign injured.

Sandin Needs to Sign With the Toronto Maple Leafs

When William Nylander sat out due to a contract dispute, some fans turned on him. They’d had high-hopes but immediately resented him for missing the start of the season.

Fans don’t like when players hold out.  And Nylander was a lot more established when he held out than Sandin, who took forever to  make the NHL and is only just earning regular ice time.

If Sandin continues to sit-out, he will hurt his career. If he shows up in November, without training camp and begins to falter, fans will turn on him, even more than they are now. Every mistake he makes will be magnified and he’ll criticized on a nightly basis.

In a perfect world, Sandin should be making what Timothy Liljegren (2 Years, $1.4M AAV) earns, which is a fair number. Liljegren happily signed his contract, bet on himself for two more seasons and will hopefully make two-three times more the next time around.

However, what type of deal is Sandin’s camp expecting? Does he think he’s worth $2M AAV? $3M AAV? Or does he think he deserves a three-to-five year deal, which could potentially walk him into unrestricted free agency?

Whatever number or term he thinks he deserves shouldn’t be up to him right now. He’s a Restricted Free Agent, which means he doesn’t control all of his rights. If the Toronto Maple Leafs think Sandin is worth, let’s say, $1.5M for two years, then sign the contract.

Every day Sandin goes without signing a contract makes him look worse. If he wants to better his image, help his team and ultimately make a ton of money in a few years, he needs to sign a deal with the Leafs immediately.