Toronto Maple Leafs fans can finally relax after the club and forward William Nylander reached a deal on December 1st just before the 5 pm deadline arrived. The 22-year-old put his signature on a new six-year contract that will pay him a total of $41.77 million over six years. If the two sides didn’t come to an agreement by the deadline Nylander would have been ineligible to play for any NHL team this season. The deal will take up just over $6.9 million a year in salary cap space. There’s no guarantee he’ll remain with the club though since the Leafs still have the option of trading him if they run into salary cap problems in the future.
That’s a possibility since general manager Kyle Dubas has several players who will become free agents at the end of the current season. These include two of the squad’s top performers in Mitchell Marner and Auston Matthews as well as promising youngsters Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen as well as high-scoring veteran defenseman Jake Gardiner. Everybody, but Gardiner will be a restricted free agent while the blue liner will be an unrestricted free agent. With Marner and Matthews likely looking for somewhere close to $10 or $11 million each and Gardiner being worth $6 or $7 million on the open market it’s going to be tough for Dubas to keep everybody happy, especially with John Tavares already making $11 million a year.
Nylander’s contract may be front loaded and filled with bonuses, but it’s still going to take up just over $6.9 million in cap space each year. With Nylander rejoining the team the Leafs appear to be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender as they were sitting second in the league standings as of Dec. 3rd without him with a record of 19-8. Dubas had to shuffle the roster to make room for the youngster and instead of putting somebody on waivers or sending them the minors he traded winger Josh Leivo to the Vancouver Canucks for forward Michael Carcone on December 3rd.
The 25-year-old Leivo had four goals and two assists in 27 games this year with 14 goals and 14 assists in 84 career regular-season contests. The 22-year-old Carcone has been playing with the AHL’s Utica Comets and has six goals and 11 assists in 20 games this season with 26 goals and 36 assists in 149 career AHL outings. The debate over whether Nylander is worth $6.96 million dollars a year will still rage on though. He posted 61 points in both the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons and after 185 regular season games has 135 points. It’s true that Nylander played much of this time with Matthews as his centre, but it’s still Nylander who has to put the puck in the net.
He was one of the top-20 NHL players in five-on-five scoring last season and he averaged more points per minute played than star players such as Tavares, Vladimir Tarasenko and Sidney Crosby. Nylander has already missed 27 games this season, but should soon be ready for action as he’s been skating and working out in Sweden. Nylander will need to produce at the same pace though or he could still be traded. The Leafs have shown they can win without him and would still like some help on the blue line. If Nylander is shipped out it would also free up some cap space for Gardiner or another top-two defenceman.