Toronto Maple Leafs Never Should Have Re-Signed William Nylander

The Toronto Maple Leafs never should have re-signed William Nylander to a contract extension last year.

William Nylander signed an eight year extension worth $11.5M AAV, making him one of the highest paid players in the NHL. However, did the Toronto Maple Leafs pay the wrong guy?

I hate to break it to fans everywhere, but Mitch Marner is way better than Nylander, yet now that Nylander is signed long-term, people seem to forget that.

Marner has the same amount of firepower to score as Nylander, with better hands, awareness and is elite defensively. If you want to tell me that Nylander is a better player because he's a two-time 40-goal scorer and finished with 13 more points than Marner last year, you have to dive into the statistics a little more.

Nylander is more durable than Marner, as he rarely misses a game, but it's not like Marner has missed huge chunks of time, either. In fact, the one year where he missed the most games was during the 2021-22 season and it was statistically better than any season Nylander has ever had.

Marner finished with 35 goals and 97 points in 72 games, which would have translated to a 40 goal and 110 point 82 game season. Match that with his ability to play the first penalty-kill all while scoring against the opposition's top defensive units and Marner is clearly the better player.

The Toronto Maple Leafs Never Should Have Signed William Nylander

I have been incredibly skeptical about Marner, with hopes that the team should trade him, but when I really look at it, it's clear that keeping Nylander was the crazier move. Nylander is in the same ball-park as Phil Kessel, who can clearly be a recipe in a Stanley Cup winning team, but he's not the player who's going to do it alone.

Marner, on the other hand, is similar to Patrick Kane, who can put the team on his back and ride them to the promised land. The fact that the Leafs committed $11.5M AAV to Nylander when Marner's contract has yet to be renegotiated is actually crazy, as the team was better off pushing to win this year while Nylander was only making $6.9M.

Now that Nylander is making $11.5M in Toronto, the team can't afford to build around him. Now the whole idea of trading Marner seems plausible because Nylander's contract is stopping them from acquiring any free agent talent or making a big splash.

Auston Matthews and Marner are the only two forwards that this team should be building around and they completely screwed everything up by signing Nylander, when they could have either let him walk for free, or traded him last season and acquired a defenseman, goalie or depth forwards.

The Nylander signing is going to go down as one of the worst contracts in hockey, as $11.5M is way too much money for a second-line winger, especially after Sam Reinhart just signed for $8.5M and scored 57 goals last year.

We can yell and moan about the Max Domi, David Kampf, Ryan Reaves and Tyler Bertuzzi signings of last year, but GM Brad Treliving's worst move may be committing to William Nylander for the next eight years, which could Mitch Marner to the trade market.