Toronto Maple Leafs: Toronto Media Will Not Stop Trying to Trade Nylander

The Toronto Maple Leafs tried to underpay William Nylander and he correctly held out for a decent contract.

Despite that, the Toronto Maple Leafs still gave Mitch Marner four million dollars more, even though they both had very similar 5v5 numbers up to that point in their careers.

Nylander eventually signed to a ridiculously team-friendly deal and proceeded to become the superstar everyone who didn’t see him as an avatar for a new type of advanced stats based NHL, with no hitting and several hands-holding Kumbaya circles per game, always knew he’d become.

People are afraid of what they don’t understand, and when their favorite team hired a “whacky math nerd” to be their GM, they made Nylander the scapegoat.

Toronto Media vs William Nylander

The entirety of the Toronto Media was in this camp, and whenever they weren’t trying to block advanced stats from entering the mainstream (they failed horribly) they spent five years trying to have  Nylander traded, and for the first time in my lifetime, they failed to get what they wanted.

Now the narrative is that Nylander is going to be too expensive to re-sign.

Ummmm I guess if you think he just started being good this year then  you might think that.  But a UFA Nylander has probably been out of the Leafs budget since the day he signed his team-friendly extension that probably cost him $18 or so million already.

I just can’t get over how it went from”the Leafs could never sign all their young players,” then it was that “signing them all was a mistake”, then it was “you can’t win with these losers,” then it was “well maybe they’re OK but you can’t put all your eggs in one basket,”  then other teams started to copy the obviously correct cap strategy, and now it’s “OK that’s right but he’s playing his way out of town, because I wasn’t paying attention when he became a superstar five years ago, or at least I didn’t want to admit it.”

So According to the Toronto Media,  when Nylander

Had Potential: Trade him.

Wasn’t performing: Trade him

Was Performing: Sell High

Is Now Clearly a Top Player in the NHL: Trade Him, You can’t afford him

So let me get this straight: under every conceivable situation, in every universe, at all times, the Toronto Maple Leafs should trade Nylander.

Just one problem, however: That is kind of dumb.

Toronto Maple Leafs and William Nylander

Since 2019, William Nylander has played in 230 games and scored 99 goals, which is 13th overall in the NHL.

He is ranked 25th in total points over that same time.

He once led the NHL in net-front goals over an entire season, which is something usually reserved for power-forwards.  It was a very embarrassing moment for people who had stuck to the “he’s a soft perimeter player” narrative years after it was obviously untrue.

This is the 5th straight season in which Nylander has posted a 54% expected goals rating or better, and there are usually only about 40 forwards every year who play enough minutes and post that kind of rating, so you can imagine how few players have done it five years in a row.

The point is that William Nylander is a great player. He’s a superstar who may one day be in the Hall of Fame.  He has this year and next year left on his contract, and who knows what will happen after that.

Ideally the Toronto Maple Leafs will re-sign him, but he’s unlikely to take another discount deal, and unless the cap skyrockets, the Leafs will have to prioritize Matthews and Marner first.

Really though, who cares? We can worry about that then.  For now, it’s important to recognize Nylander as a franchise player who, as the Leafs third best player, makes their team the best one in the NHL.

So far this year, Nylander has an impressive 17 goals and 33 points in 30 games.  He’s on pace for 45 goals, but the underlying numbers are even more impressive.

The Leafs are outscoring their opponents 23-9 at 5v5 with Nylander on the ice. Only Tatar, Bergeron, Bunting and Hischier are better so far this year.

The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t trading Nylander, who is a top ten player in the history of their franchise, ever.  He may have to leave as a free-agent one day, but until them, let’s just enjoy the fun of having one of the best players alive on our favorite team.

Nylander is elite.  He is untouchable, and there continues to be a zero-percent chance he is traded.  He is one of the NHL’s most consistent players, and anyone who says he is “soft” or that he  can’t perform in the playoffs, or that he is a perimeter player is wrong, and speaking from a place of total ignorance.