Maple Leafs Sign William Nylander To Eight-Year Extension
The Toronto Maple Leafs have made it official, signing William Nylander to an eight-year, $92 million contract extension. The average annual value is $11.5 million. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the deal also contains a full no-movement clause throughout the deal.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Cap Friendly indicates $69 million of the $92 million will be paid out in signing bonuses.
Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander (NHL Images).
No surprise there. Friedman and his colleague Nick Kypreos first reported last week that the Leafs and Nylander were closing in on this deal, which was expected to be done by today.
Nylander has earned this contract. He was underpaid on his current deal ($6.92 million annually) while his performance steadily improved. He reached 80 points in 2021-22 followed by a career-high of 40 goals and 87 points last season.
With 54 points in 37 games, Nylander is on pace for over 115 points this season. As of today, he leads the Leafs in points and is sixth among the league leaders. The 27-year-old winger has established himself as an elite scoring forward and should be paid as such.
Nylander’s critics believe his performance will tail off now that he’s inked his big-money contract. That’s a possibility I consider unlikely based on his play over the past three seasons. He’s in his playing prime now and will remain among the Leafs’ best players going forward.
The Leafs had a projected $32.5 million in cap space for next season with 11 active players under contract before Nylander’s signing. This deal will leave them with around $21 million to invest in filling out the remainder of their roster.
With the salary cap rising to around $87.5 million for next season, the Leafs felt comfortable in signing Nylander to such an expensive extension. They can afford it but it could complicate efforts to re-sign or replace pending UFAs like Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, TJ Brodie and Mark Giordano, as well as restricted free agents like Timothy Liljegren.
With Nylander under contract, the focus shifts toward Mitch Marner. He has a year remaining on his contract with an AAV of $10.9 million and is eligible for UFA status in July 2025.
Unless your name is McDavid, MacKinnon or Matthews, that’s just too much money.
Iam a life long Leaf fan and very passionate …this is the worst contract this franchise will ever sign for a number of reasons…
#1
I dont care he is having a career year he is not worth this money long term ESPECIALLY with a full no move just insane …Treliving wanted to sign Gudreau for 20 million more than he took in Columbus and Gudreau isnt half the player he was…ALL READY …he should have learned through that scenario but didnt …Nylander will go missing for long stretches of time and when he does you dont even know he is on the team….he dosent contribute much elsewhere….
#2
The Leafs desperately needed that money to sprinkle elsewhere around the team as they just get ZERO contributions from bottom 6 and Goaltending has cost them 25% of the games they have lost this year !
They also are very thin in draft picks over the next 4 years ….if they had traded him they would have saved his money and got back at least a player prospect and 1st rounder to help out along the eay in other areas that are much needed …especially a POWER FORWARD for teh top 6 which wins cups not guys who go misssing in playoffs and wilt away …THIS TEAM WILL NEVER WIN HOW THEY AE BUILT !
Fans will be booooing Nylander by year 2 of this contract so bad that he will have to leave town on his own by asking for a trade
…mark my words its going to get bad for him in a year or so when he goes AWOL on the ice !!!!
Than what with 6 more years on the deal !!!
I hate this signing ….TERRIBLE don’t care what people say bout his play this year …I know what’s going to happen now that he has cashed in…
Writing is on the wall….
Shannahan has built a great pond hockey team …they will never go further than what they have all ready with this core ….
Leafs could use Nylander this season, and trade him after their 1st round exit before his NMC on the new deal kicks in! He still has 22 teams he can be traded to before July 1.
The problem with that is, how many of those 22 have 11.5 in cap space for the next 8 years.
Nothing to do with the player, those kind of contracts are almost impossible to move.
I’ve said it about Panarin, Tavares etc.
But all this is kinda just pointless. They didn’t sign him to an 8 year deal to trade him in the next 6 months.
Lmao you don’t have a clue what your talking about !!
Pastas contract looks like a bargain 😀😀😀 vs Swedish pasta Now they need to re up market for 13 mil 🙄
It’s actually a smaller percentage of the cap than pasta’s but pasta besides being a better player also has his NMC slowly decreasing as his contract expires.
Unfortunately nylander is an elite producer which in my books is a player who scores over 80 pts and scores 30 – 40 goals. He’s pretty consistent in that point as well as shows up in the playoffs. Most teams have one or luckily have two of these elite players in their prime and fortunately or not the Leafs have more and they all need to get paid on your team or another.
As for Nylander and his contract, if we went to UFA status, what do you think he could have signed for realistically? $12-13m over the 7? I’m sure it would have fallen between those two numbers.
Market is Marner in early post 🤓
They’re gonna have to shed JT. Unless they want to wait another year and let him go then… but man there is no way they can build a winner like this.
Imagine Sweeney let Bert leave to Leaf’s for 5 million and signed JVR for a million who has been twice the player. JVR has as many goals as Mathew Tkatchuk and more points than OVI. Sweeney will win GM of the year again. Geekie, Heinen and Shattenkirk all for under 4 million also brilliant that’s five starters for less than Bertuzzi. Marner will be traded or not signed writing is on the wall.
Obe if we are being honest; Sweeney wanted to sign Bertuzzi; however, at the time Bertuzzi was looking for more term and dollars that didn’t materialize.
I would wait and see Bertuzzi in the playoffs before I’m concerned about the regular season.
@ Caper …bertuzzi …has been ZERO impact on the Leafs …his points have been very spuradic and physical play is almost non existent ….
He goes missing for weeks at a time as well….
He has not been worth his contract and you dodged a bullet for long term purposes on the Bruins you got lucky …he is less than half the player he…. WAS…. at best !
Him and Domi have been dime a dozen players thus far this season !
Every time a player signs a huge deal fans get on here and say too much money for him!
Fair enough, not ideal, I get it, we all want our players for less than market value. So put your GM hat on and let me know what you would have done if you have Tre’s job. I think think it is obvious that he gets $11.5M/year on the open market. Lyle also said as much above, because that’s what guys who produce like him will make this year and next. Guys like Pasta just did.
You could argue that Leafs should have signed him this off season, for less. Maybe that was an option? I dunno, but agent and player have to agree and maybe Willie just bet on himself. If so good for him.
Options that I see:
1 – keep him for this year and playoffs, and let him walk when season is over. Use that cap space for ?? Who?
2 – Trade him to a team not on his 10 team no trade list before TDL. Who would that team be, and what do you see as a reasonable return from that team. If you wouldn’t mind, include why it makes sense.
3 – Sign him for what he just got.
Treliving did his due diligence, he chose #3.
Curious to see if anything that makes sense comes back, or if it is the generic “trade for a top 4 D and a goalie” or “a power forward and a D”. Or whatever make believe players are available.
Next year will be tough for the Leafs to address all their needs, but still a playoff team IMO. The year after might be easier, cap will likely go up again.
This move solidifies the Leafs chances to be in the hunt for while longer, and more kicks at the can come playoff time. Bet there are some fans out there that would take that for their team right now.
Just maybe the Leafs surprise you this playoff? Part of me wants them to succeed after reading all their fans moan about this, but I will get over it soon enough.
Go B’s!
Leafs so top heavy in talent and contracts…and Nomovement clauses…
show me the money over show me a winner
Congratulations, Leafs fans. Almost there.
No hometown discount. Took market value but the length of the deal will guarantee smaller percentage of the cap over its tenure. Nylander has been consistent and on an upward trajectory in points and overall play. He still hasn’t reached his ceiling in my opinion.
I don’t like the NMC. That wouldn’t be part of the deal but now that it is good luck to Tavares trying to score another windfall. I predict he’ll offer to take 2-3 mil less and if so show him the door. Marner will want to be on par or higher than Matthews so 13.25 plus. My bet is a demand for 14x 6. Unless they drop Tavares expect an impasse there.
Marner thinks he’s not expendable cause he’s an Ontario kid. Guess what there’s a lot of Ontario kids that were traded. He could prove himself out of Toronto now that 3/4 core have NMC protection..
Wonderful.
Toronto paying through the nose for a guy who is afraid to get hit and go into corners.
Just the type of wimpy ballerina you don’t need come playoff time.
Leafs don’ t learn on spending all of their cap space on their forwards. Offense has never been a problem for the team, yet they still refuse to spend $$$ on goaltending and a top two-way (mean) defenseman, which is what they need to put them over the top. Until that happens keep looking forward to 1st round losses