As promised by Elliotte Friedman on Saturday night, the Leafs have re-signed William Nylander today.
8 for 88 😎
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) January 8, 2024
The contract comes with an annual cap hit of $11.5M moving William Nylander into the second spot on the Leafs highest paid spot, at least temporarily for next season and given the length of the deal it makes Willy the recipient of the largest contract ever handed out by the Leafs.
Here are a few of the details we know so far…
Officially official: William Nylander lands the largest total value contract in #leafs history at $92-million over eight years ($11.5M AAV).
The deal includes a full no-movement clause and significant signing bonus payments, per sources.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) January 8, 2024
William Nylander’s franchise record-setting deal with #LeafsForever includes approximately $69 million paid out as signing bonus of the total $92 million.
8 years, $92 million, $11.5 million AAV.@DailyFaceoff
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) January 8, 2024
The no movement clause being part of William Nylander’s deal comes as absolutely no surprise. This is pretty much standard for this type of contract and this type of player. Nylander is at that level where having control over when and where he goes is part of the price of even starting talks on re-signing him.
The signing bonus part is a bit more interesting and while that accounts for 75% of Nylander’s total earnings being paid out that way, it is still unknown if that is consistent throughout his contract or if the signing bonuses peak in certain years. It is possible that Nylander has a greater amount of bonus paid out in certain years, especially those near the CBA negotiations, but will also be interesting to see if Nylander’s contract relies more on regular salary payments towards the end of his contract, which could benefit the Leafs.
It is also still unknown if the deal is frontloaded or backloaded and I’m sure once we see the full details of it everyone and their dog will run the contract through the Capfriendly buyout calculator to see what the Leafs have committed themselves too. (As much as there should be excitement about Nylander returning there is absolutely some risk on any deal that runs eight years.)
Nylander’s contract shows Toronto’s commitment to the big four model with their forwards and while we don’t know what will come next for Marner and Tavares, the Leafs having Matthews and Nylander under contract ensures that Toronto will be competitive for the foreseeable future.
