Daily Faceoff Live: How much does William Nylander make on his next contract?
The Leafs managed to get out of a two-goal deficit to come back and win 5-4 in overtime against the Florida Panthers, and part of that was due to two goals from William Nylander.
That now puts him at 24 on the year, and it’s been much needed production in a season where Auston Matthews hasn’t been scoring at his usual pace, although he also has goals in his last three games.
Tyler Yaremchuk and Mike McKenna talked about William Nylander on Daily Faceoff Live, and what the Leafs will do with him as his contract gets closer to expiring in 2024.
Mike McKenna: “A big reason why the Maple Leafs are rolling is because it’s not just Matthews, Tavares, and Marner scoring, Nylander’s really hit another level this season. I still think he has a good chance at scoring 40 goals and putting up 90 points.
Last night was one of those classic Nylander moments, where he picks the game up and goes. He missed a penalty shot earlier in the game, but he manages to score one off his noggin. The puck basically hits him in the head and goes in, and it’s like ‘Okay, I’m back.’ Then he takes over in overtime and wins it with a nice move around Bobrovsky to his forehand.
I saw his last game-winner in overtime here in St. Louis, and you kind of wonder about it, what’s Nylander’s next contract going to look like? If you asked me, this guy’s probably going to have to set the bar at $9 million and go up from there. He’s probably not going to get Rantanen or Tkachuk money, but you look at that Filip Forsberg deal at $8.5 million, if Nylander’s putting up 90 points and he scores 40, he’s got to be in that range.
The depth of the Leafs, and I wouldn’t even call it depth with Nylander, but the strength of that forward core lineup really came through. Murray stopped four of eight last night, and Sheldon Keefe ends up pulling him for Samsonov just to get a change.”
Tyler Yaremchuk: “I love the Nylander contract discussion, because he is elgible for an extension coming up here with only more season after this one left on his deal. I think we all remember how much difficulty those two sides had coming to an agreement on his last deal.
And if you’re Nylander, you’ve scored more goals than Matthews and you only have four less points than Mitch Marner, how do you not sit there and look at Matthews’ $11.6 million AAV and Marner’s $10.9 million AAV when it’s time to negotiate your new deal, and go ‘I’m worth what those guys are getting because I can drive offense just as well as those guys’, and this season has been a prime example of that.
You mention $8.5 million, remember by the time this contract’s up, if he walks into UFA, we could get a cap increase of $4 million this summer, maybe another $4 million after that, I think he might be a $10-11 million guy by the time he’s a UFA.”
Mike McKenna: “There’s no question. Like I say, you started at $9 million and you go up from there, it’s only going to matter whether the Leafs are going to be able to keep him or not, because open market, I think you might be looking at $9.5-10 million for Nylander.”
You can watch the full episode here…