Insider Reveals Nylander Reported Contract Numbers & Imminent Announcement

It appears there'll be only one more sleep for Toronto Maple Leafs fans until they can rejoice in the official announcement of William Nylander's new long-term extension.

@FriedgeHNIC reports eight years around $11.5 million US for Nylander could be announced when Leafs get back from California.

— Lance Hornby 🇺🇦 (@sunhornby) January 7, 2024

NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman reported on Hockey Night in Canada that the deal will be eight years at around $11.5 million, and will potentially be announced on Monday, upon their return from their current West Coast road trip.

Speculation has been running rampant in the past week about the advanced state of negotiations, with rumors ranging from the importance of Nylander's father's involvement in the negotiations, to predictions of an $11M - $11.25M AAV.

But Friedman now reports that "it's getting close."

The principles aren't talking (to the media), (but) the Maple Leafs fly home from San Jose on Sunday, and we could see this as soon as Monday. I do believe the AAV for Nylander is going to be around $11.5M a year. I think quite simply it came down to one fact: the Toronto Maple Leafs wanted to keep the player, they think he's a good player and a big part of their future, and this was the price that it took to get him for eight years, and that's what they're going to do. 

The $11.5M will account for 13% of the cap for Toronto, but with the cap set to be going up, they feel they'll be able to make it work. And besides, as Friedman notes, they really had no choice at this point:

"The calendar dictated that you had to deal with Nylander now. So they had a choice, and I think they said, 'We wanna do this, and then we'll deal with everything else as we have to.'"

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