Maple Leafs Urgency Has Not Changed As They Still Want To Re-Sign William Nylander
TSN Hockey Analyst Dave Poulin on the Talking Point does not think the Toronto Maple Leafs urgency has changed in terms of signing Nylander to a new contract even with him off to a hot start.
** NHLRumors.com Transcription
Dave Poulin: “William Nylander’s terrific start really shouldn’t change the Leaf urgency to make a deal. They want to sign him now every bit as much as they wanted to sign him before the year started. It is interesting different players react in different ways when they get in these situations.
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And Willie Nylander playing out the final year of his deal is playing as well as anyone in the league is right now. He’s in the top 10 and scoring. He’s putting up points every night, he’s doing it in an effective manner on a winning team. And the team he’s doing it for really wants to re-sign him. The complex part is the internal part.
I’m not going outside for comps at all. I don’t want you to tell me who’s doing what in Minnesota or, or wherever around the league, New York. I had looked at my own team, and his fair comp is Mitch Marner.
The problem is Mitch Marner has for the last four years, this is a fifth season, made $4 million a year more than William Nylander. Now during that time, William Nylander scored more goals than Mitch Marner. Mitch Marner has more points. Nylander has outperformed Marner in the playoffs. And you can say okay, well, from a goal-scoring standpoint, Nylander does have 21 more goals. Points-wise over four years, Marner has 62 more points.
So you can go back and forth on which one has more value but the gap between them, being $4 million, you would expect Marner with another full year left in his contract, to get a raise. And Nylander simply be saying, well, I’ve got to be making what Marner’s making right now, which is $10.9 plus million dollars. He’s in the $6.9 plus range.
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So I think it’s an internal thing. I was in a similar situation. My final year in Boston and I was going to be a UFA. I played the first half of the year and things were going very well. And they came to me and said, Okay, we’d like to re-sign you now. And I said, well, I just took the risk for the first half of the year. Believe me, Willie Nylander’s taking a risk right now. He could get huge security by signing a long-term deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
We’ll see if that happens in the next period of time. The team wants it. The player wants it. When that happens it usually does occur. Nyalnder’s case will be an interesting one.”
