The first year of William Nylander's mega 8-year, $92M contract extension certaintly didn't go to plan for anyone -- the player or the team. Nylander didn't have a poor season statistically, but the back and forth between him and Craig Berube in the media throughout the season grew tiresome for everyone.
When asked what went wrong with the Maple Leafs this season, Nylander kept his answer short and concise. In fact, his end of season media availability lasted all of 92 seconds -- far and away the shortest of any of the core members of the team.
""A lot of injuries piled up and I think that was maybe was a big factor, looking back at it.""Nylander on what went wrong this season
When asked if the team didn't have a complete buy-in to Head Coach Craig Berube's system, Nylander also kept his answer short.
""I think at some points, we weren't able to execute the system to the best we could, so I think that was one of the issues.""
When asked if he had belief that this season was a one-off and the team could return to the playoffs next season, the team's leading scorer this season was straight to the point: "Yes, of course."
As mentioned, this was the first-year of William Nylander's 8-year, $92M contract extension that he inked with the club last January, meaning the Leafs superstar has seven more years at $11.5M annually on his ticket. The deal has a full no-movement clause in place, meaning he cannot be traded unless he agrees to the deal.
Just a couple weeks ago, following the dismissal of team General Manager Brad Treliving, Nylander said he was committed to the Maple Leafs barring a complete teardown and rebuild: "Unless it was a full rebuild and we were going to get rid of everybody, then it's a different story. But just to do a re-tool or whatever ... I still want to be here, yeah".
One thing is for certain; it should be a very interesting offseason in Leaf land.
Add us as a preferred source on Google