The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed the brother of superstar and 40 goal scorer William Nylander.
The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Alexander Nylander to a minor league deal on Sunday.
The deal will give the younger Nylander brother the chance to earn his way onto the Leafs and resume his career with his brother.
The Leafs have had an issue signing replacement players to contracts beyond the league minimum, but this is a risk-free lottery ticket - If A. Nylander succeeds it won't cost the Leafs anything, and if he doesn't, it will cost even less.
This is one of the few no-doubt risk-free intelligent decisions Brad Treliving and the Leafs have made since the far superior Kyle Dubas was forced from the organization.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Sign William Nylander's Brother Alex Nylander
Technically, it's the Marlies, and not the Leafs, who signed Nylander.
He should have no problem dominating the AHL and if he doesn't earn a job at training camp, he will likely sign an NHL contract and join the Leafs as an injury replacement at some point during the season.
It's actually suprising that Nylander had to sign an AHL contract considering he scored 11 goals in 23 games (7 at 5v5) last season with Columbus. That's a 40 goal pace, even if it is obviously juiced by an unsustainable shooting percentage.
Nylander has a Corsi rating that is over 50% for his career and he tends to win his minutes, despite playing on a succession of crappy teams.
He was picked 8th overall and has an incredible amount of talent, but he seems to have always been placed in bad situations.
I'm not saying that he's going to suddenly become as good as his brother, but there is definiteily a world where Alex Nylander puts it all together and is a solid top-nine player in the NHL.
There is likely even a situation where he is a late-blooming star player. Is that likely? No, but it sure isn't impossible.
This is the kind of high-value signing I love. Earlier in the week when there were rumours about the Leafs signing Nylander, I assumed they would be giving him a guaranteed contract for too much money based on his shooting-percentage bender from last season.
The Leafs actually made a very smart play here. Nylander ended the year on fire in Columbus and maybe that was just luck....but maybe it was an incredibly talented player finally figuring it out.
The Leafs just bought themselves a lottery ticket.
Perhaps Alex Nylander wins a job in training camp, as the Leafs bottom-six is pretty terrible, and the two Nylander brother can lead the Toronto Maple Leafs to glory. It's not that unlikely.