PHOTO: Bildbyrån
William Nylander has started the season on a high.
Now the insider expects the Toronto Maple Leafs to extend with the Swede.
– I would say that there is a 90 percent chance that Nylander will stay next season, says Chris Johnston in a podcast.
William Nylander, 27, was drafted in 2014 by the Toronto Maple Leafs, as the eighth player overall. At the start of the 2018/2019 season, he missed almost two months when negotiations with the club for an extension dragged on.
Nylander’s bang start
On the last day to sign to play that season, Nylander signed a six-year contract worth 45 million dollars, almost 500 million kroner.
The Swede was responsible for a stable season last year and was one of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ key players. He was responsible for 40 goals and a total of 87 points when the Leafs went to the second round of the playoffs – where they were repassed against the final team Florida Panthers.
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This season has been started just as steadily by Nylander. The right forward, who has also been matched as a center, has scored six points (3+3) in the opening three games. At the same time, contract discussions are going on in the background, as the six-year contract Nylander signed in 2018 expires after the season.
Toronto would like to extend the 27-year-old, and William is said to want to stay. The question all Leafs supporters are now asking is whether the parties will manage to come to an agreement.
“Dirty Secret”
Much now points to the fact that they will come to an agreement.
– I don’t think there is any reason to believe that Nylander will not sign an extension with Toronto. Here’s the dirty secret of that negotiation in my opinion: Toronto knows he doesn’t want to play anywhere else. I really think it’s true, says the Maple Leafs insider Chris Johnston in The Leaf Report podcast and continues:
– Considering what the Leafs can pay him, what other teams could have paid him, plus the fact that it’s a player who really loves Toronto, wants to stay in Toronto, and can’t imagine living anywhere else, if you put it all together those factors – they will find a way.
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Johnston then makes a long explanation about how Nylander will make more in the long run by signing an eight-year contract with Toronto than if he signs for a new club as a free agent. He sums it all up like this:
– I simply believe that if you have a player who wants to be here, and the club really, really wants to extend with the player, then I think everything will work out, and he will stay next season. I’d say there’s a 90 percent chance he’ll be around next season. Of course, the Leafs will have to pay for themselves, if he continues to play like this. But it is so logical that there will be an extension, says Johnston.
READ MORE: William Nylander’s delicious dream goal – which makes everyone think of Mats Sundin’s glory days in the NHL
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