Nylander Extended

 

Photo From Sportsnet

All of the speculation and all of the trade rumours from the rumour chasers can finally be put to rest because Monday morning the Toronto Maple Leafs announced they extended William Nylander for 8 more seasons. The deal comes with an average annual value of 11.5 million dollars with a full no-move clause. In typical Leaf fan fashion, the reaction is mixed. Nylander aside from the year where he held out for a contract while Dubas was in charge has been very consistent regarding his production. To the Leaf fans who criticize him understand that during his entire Leafs tenure, Nylander has been compared to David Pastrnak who is currently at a cap hit of 11.25 million. Willy has signed for seemingly his market value. Yes, there will be the talk of “it’s too much money in 4 players” and to that I say let’s remember the Chicago Black Hawks did the same thing when the salary cap was much lower and managed to win a few cups, and every critic will hide in their cave if Toronto manages to win one cup with this group. I am very happy that Nylander wants to stay with the Maple Leafs and has committed to the program for another eight seasons. There have been too many occasions where Toronto could either never sign an elite talent or they had an elite player publicly say he wants to stay in Toronto only to sign for the Vancouver Canucks.

I applaud William Nylander for wanting to stay with the organization and committing himself to a long-term contract. The focus for the Maple Leafs will now be how and when will they upgrade their blueline and whether they go out and get a goalie while Joseph Woll recovers from his high ankle sprain. Then Brad Treliving will have to focus on signing both Tavares and Mitch Marner. I think both Mitch and John will remain with the Toronto Maple Leafs with John taking a page out of Patrice Bergeron’s book by taking a lower cap hit to remain in Toronto with this core intact.

Thankfully these are all problems we fans can speculate over and not have to handle so for now let’s just enjoy the fact that William Nylander is going to be a member of our Toronto Maple Leafs for the next eight seasons.

That’s it for this quick write up thanks as always for reading.