Maple Leafs Rumors: Team Unwilling To Make Rash Decision On Nylander

William Nylander and the Toronto Maple Leafs are far apart in contract negotiations as Nylander is dead set on getting $10 million+ per season. The Maple Leafs are already paying three forwards over $10 million AAV and can't afford to do so with another player if they want to keep any sort of depth on their roster.

Bryan Hayes spoke with Jay Onrait on TSN to discuss the situation and noted that the Maple Leafs should absolutely not budge on negotiations. They did so last time Nylander, Auston Matthews, and Mitch Marner needed new contracts and look where that got them. The best course of action is to put focus into Matthews and hope that deal gets done before the season. Contract negotiations can impact a player's play if that's in their mind and a lot of the times when players are going to become free agents after the season, they perform well.

Hayes said, "the Maple Leafs have a set number, and if Nylander doesn't like it, so be it." It is completely acceptable to go into the season without having moved Nylander if something great doesn't fall in their lap. They will get one final year of Nylander at a great price of $6.962 million AAV and have gotten more than they could have asked for overall from this deal. At the worst, the team has lots of open cap space next offseason to potentially bring back Tyler Bertuzzi or Max Domi, or look elsewhere. It's not often the Maple Leafs actually have cap space to work with and if things play out without Nylander's price dropping, no trade needs to happen and the team will be fine.