The Toronto Maple Leafs need to make a decision on what the plan is with William Nylander.
In a recent interview with Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek, Nylander expressed his desire to want to remain with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the rest of his career but has said he is in no rush to get a contract settled.
Personally if I’m Brad Treliving, I am doing everything to get a contract done now and not have to worry about it come free agency.
They already got a deal done with Auston Matthews, but Nylander is nearly as important.
Why The Toronto Maple Leafs Need To Sign William Nylander Now
The Leafs need to act now and cannot let this issue hang over the season and become a distraction.
The only issue here is what Nylander’s asking price might be.
We saw the Matthews contract make him become the highest paid player in the NHL come the 2024-25 season. Nylander obviously needs a raise on the bargain $7 million he’s currently making, but the Leafs can’t go too high.
For the Leafs, I think it comes down to two things, you either give him a set price, one that you won’t go any higher, or at worst, you might have to trade him.
I am a big Nylander fan and have never been on the “trade Nylander” bandwagon over the last few years and I will continue to not be on that bandwagon. But at the same time you have to look to the future as well.
You can’t risk losing Nylander for nothing, but keeping him for this season and letting him go in free agency is still more than you’d likely get for him in a trade. It might look bad on paper, but it’s better to let him walk and use him for this season as a sort of “own rental” rather than trade him for a package that makes the team worse in a year they hope to win the Stanley Cup.
Regardless, the optics of letting him leave for nothing would be terrible, and it would be one of the biggest blunders in Maple Leafs history so they need to come to a conclusion now.]
Ideally, I would love for the Leafs and Nylander to come to agreement prior to the start of the season, but if not they’ve got at least explore a trade to see if they can bring back something better than letting him walk.
I think I speak for all of Leafs Nation by saying that getting this deal done would be way better then waiting it out.
Simply put, Toronto has to sign Nylander now.