William Nylander Contract Won't Hurt the Maple Leafs Cap Situation
On Monday, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that forward William Nylander has re-signed for eight years. His new deal is worth $92 million with a yearly salary cap hit of $11.5 million. Nylander will also have a full no-movement clause in his contract. He will be 35 years old in the final year of this deal.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will have $54.15 million numbers tied up in their top five players next season.
According to capfriendly.com, the Leafs will have about $21 million this off-season to sign free agents as the cap is expected to go up to $87.5 million.
The Leafs have 12 roster players signed for next season, so depending on what happens this season at the trade deadline, Leafs GM Brad Treliving will need to fill at least nine roster spots to have a 21-man roster.
Nylander's New Deal Doesn't Ruin Maple Leafs Salary Cap Situation
Most of the roster spots that need filling can be filled by players making $1.5 million or less.
Who knows what the Leafs will need this summer, as there are still about 40 games to go, but $21 million is more than they had this summer, so they should be all right.
The Leafs also have Matthew Kniews, Nick Roberson, Pontus Holmberg, Topi Niemela, Mikko Kokkonen, Joseph Woll, Fraser Minten and Easton Cowan, among others, who will be either already on the team or challanging to make it next year, meaning that they have a lot of useful players who will be on league minimum entry-level contracts.
If the Leafs spend half ($10.5 million) or just over half of his cap space on acquiring a top-six forward and top-four defenseman, they will have between $9 million to $10.5 million left over.
They can then fill the remaining 7 or 8 roster spots with depth players who make $1.5 million or less. I don't think Treliving is panicking, and neither should we. Let's enjoy the fact that we will get to watch William Nylander for eight more years.
For those wondering how this will impact the re-signing of Mitch Marner next season, it won't impact the Leafs as much as many might think. After the cap goes up next season to $87.5 million, it is expected to go up again the following season to an estimated $92 million.
Marner's next deal will start during the 2025-26 season when the cap is $92 million. Considering that Marner's next contract will earn him about $2 million more than he's making now, it will fit under the salary cap without affecting the team too much.
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The people worrying about this need to chill out.