Confirmed with Link: Nylander signs extension of 8 years - 11.5M AAV

[Evilhomer]

Just look at the cap allocation to everything but the top 6 forwards and top pairing D, max salary is 2.5 million! it's crazy to me. Barely any cap in the bottom 6F, bottom 4D are skimping and goalies are as cheap as you can go.

Yes with ELC, good contracts etc maybe you can make it work but skimping on basically every position but top 6 just doesn't spell success. I'm not a fan of having the majority of your cap tied in 4 players let alone them all being forwards... The depth isn't there and it will never be there. That's how the team is intended to be constructed. That's a lot of pressure on Matthews and Co and if history is any indication...

I think the issue will be that they will have no room to "miss" on a long-term mid-level contract, i.e., the second and third line forwards or second pairing defensemen who typically make in the $5 - $6 million range. Can you risk giving bertuzzi a long term deal at $6 million per season on the chance that he doesn't perform or runs into non career ending injuries? As a result, I think we will continue to see a lot of one year deals to fill out the roster.

 

[IrishInOntario]

Just look at the cap allocation to everything but the top 6 forwards and top pairing D, max salary is 2.5 million! it's crazy to me. Barely any cap in the bottom 6F, bottom 4D are skimping and goalies are as cheap as you can go.

Yes with ELC, good contracts etc maybe you can make it work but skimping on basically every position but top 6 just doesn't spell success. I'm not a fan of having the majority of your cap tied in 4 players let alone them all being forwards... The depth isn't there and it will never be there. That's how the team is intended to be constructed. That's a lot of pressure on Matthews and Co and if history is any indication...

I agree that the cap allocation isn't great by any stretch, but I think this is what they're trying to do, not that I'm in full support of it...

I think management sees it like this.

1. Roughly the 2024 cap allocation that I mentioned previously, with the cap in the $87.5 million range.

2. In 2025 Tavares re-signs an extension in the 2 x $5.5 million range, in the same year the cap is expected to rise about $4 million ($91.5 million cap) which gives you $9.5 million to spend. Marner gets a raise to about $12.5 million, which gives you $7.9 million to extend Knies, make a decision on McCabe and upgrade your goaltending. Meanwhile, the thought is that guys like Minten, Cowan, Niemela and Robertson (if still around) will be ready to play on the team full time and keep the bottom end of the roster cheap.

3. In 2026 the cap jumps $3-$4 more million, without anybody due a big raise, meaning in can be spent to increase forward depth. Beyond 2026, Tavares' deal comes off the books and the Leafs start planning to extend Matthews again, while freeing up some additional cap.

 

[Menzinger]

nhl gotta get rid of these NMC

cuz u give the player the money but if it doesnt work out, team should be able to trade him

thats how it is in the nba

Then the owners are going to need to offer the players union something juicy in return. Maybe shortening the RFA age a year or two early might do it

 

[ACC1224]

You seriously don't think he is?

Of course not, why would he?
Like the rest of the team he’s focused on the season.

 

[Pengu]

This season he's playing up to that deal. BUT it was so damn stupid to try and play hardball in the summer and be all cocky thinking you could get him down to 9. He had ALL the leverage and if he had got 10 in the summer all would had been happy now. All it would had taken was some belief that Nylander would had continued to show that he is an elite player...

 

[Budz]

The Leafs, plain and simple need to stop giving any type of NMC on bridge deals. It kills any leverage for the club in negotiating these bigger or last deals.

You reward the player who gave you deal with the NMC as thanks for their loyalty in taking a more team friendly deal.

Same goes for our bonuses. Why has a strength been turned into a reverse weapon and almost an expectation.

 

[Gary Nylund]

I think out of the 3 Marner has the least leverage. He already got his massive pay raise. TBH i think he’s the guy they are gonna dig their heels into. I don’t think he gets more than 12. Ideally a matching 11.5 contract with Nylander would be perfect. Realistically Marner is probably worth the 10.9 now but nothing more than that.

What he's worth - I'd wait until after the playoffs before thinking about that. If he can get over the hump mentally, I'd certainly consider keeping him though hard to see going any higher than 11.9. But if he's still a no show after the first 4 games of the playoffs, I'd consider letting him walk and spend the money elsewhere. Either on defence, or who knows, maybe McDavid wants to come home. Ideally they'd pressure him to waive the NMC but ...

I hope you're right that it's not a given that they just throw bags of money at him, I dunno though. Since Tre arrived he's kept up the tradition of paying the stars as much as they want, I'm not sure there's any reason to expect anything different to happen with Marner.

 

[New User Name]

Would have been nice if Leafs top players took into consideration how their contracts are front loaded and heavy signing bonuses every July 1st.

Especially Matthews who because he is a full time resident of AZ, he can take advantage of the US/Canada tax treaty and pay far less in Canadian taxes. Not to mention the lucrative sponsorship deals they get.

Oh, well. it's all about the name on the back of the sweater, not the name on the front.

Of course not, why would he?
Like the rest

We can agree to disagree. But if he's not Daddy is.

 

[ACC1224]

Would have been nice if Leafs top players took into consideration how their contracts are front loaded and heavy signing bonuses every July 1st.

Especially Matthews who because he is a full time resident of AZ, he can take advantage of the US/Canada tax treaty and pay far less in Canadian taxes. Not to mention the lucrative sponsorship deals they guys get.

Oh, well. it's all about the name on the back of the sweater, not the name on the front.


well Daddy is.

There it is.

 

[Jojalu]

Legend has it, the man scored 4 touchdowns that day...

Some posts just nail it. This is one of those

 

[Confucius]

Then the owners are going to need to offer the players union something juicy in return. Maybe shortening the RFA age a year or two early might do it

Wouldn’t matter to us, we pay RFA’s like UFA’s. Why? Because we can. Lol

 

[Menzinger]

You think a maximum term contract starting at 28 years old is a gift from a player to a team?

It pledges the guys future to the team without gambling on extracting more money from expected cap increases. Short term contracts aren't a gift to the team either.

 

[PromisedLand]

Full no movement clauses are meant for guys who take a discount not guys who squeezed every dollar he could get.

This!

 

[New User Name]

There it is.

Yes, there it is. We shall see. I hope you're right.

 

[DocJ]

I don’t have to wait, we’re already seeing it. This whole internal cap bullshit is pretty much out the window with the salary jump. There’s really only two contracts now for star players.

Teams sign players after year 2 of their ELC to inflated 8-year contracts they don’t deserve and they convince their fan bases those deals are steals when they really aren’t for about 95% of them.

Or you overpay when they are about to hit UFA.

Or in our case, you do both.

Take them straight from ELC to UFA payday (but without getting the 4 UFA years like the other guys get), and then overpay them again! Hurrah!

 

[PromisedLand]

Why do people care about the signing bonus?

Because upfront money is supposed to help lower the AAV.

Would you rather have more money now so you can invest and grow that; OR wait till the end restricting you from investing significant amounts?

 

[Menzinger]

Because upfront money is supposed to help lower the AAV.

Would you rather have more money now so you can invest and grow that; OR wait till the end restricting you from investing significant amounts?

Folks keep repeating this, but is there a single contract where this has actually happened? Not trying to be argumentative, but can't think of any.

Bonuses are definitely a way to attract a player, but I don't see much evidence around the league of it leading to cheaper deals overall

 

[PromisedLand]

for all the people surprised about the number.

Please take a look at all the contracts that were signed the last few years.

If you were Nylander would you take less when. Players like Cole Caufield make $7.85M
Brady Tkachuk $8.2M
Johnny Gaudreau $9.75M

Even the crappieat player like Pat Laine is making $8.7M

There’s no way in hell Nylander will take less than 11M

92M/7=13.1 AAV

Which team would offer Nylander 13.1 AAV with full NMC and fully front loaded contract?

Come on man

Treliving screwed the pooch here even more than dubas

 

[Strangle]

So now that Willy got the bag, as many many fans here wanted him to …. Is the team better?

 

[myleafs]

another positive is he signed and committed for 8 years. isn't that what fans wanted lol? We wanted a star to commit to us long term.

Personally I would like a much more balanced team. Im rooting for em but this running it back forever is wearing thin.

 

[Confucius]

Well the balance of this year is going to be very entertaining around here. William stays on a tear so we should be doing well. William goes into a slump, the meltdowns will be gold.

 

[Smif]

surely brad doesn't give him a penny more then nylander

He's been better every season except for this one. With that being sad, I hope it's not higher.

 

[Strangle]

nhl gotta get rid of these NMC

cuz u give the player the money but if it doesnt work out, team should be able to trade him

thats how it is in the nba

I think you should be able to just straight up cut a player

 

[verdi]

Leafs should be able to ignore the cap - this limit is pointless for teams that can pay.

 

[kk87]

Two things that can both be entirely accurate:
1) it sucks and makes no sense for him to be making more than Pastrnak. This is yet another case of a star Leaf player squeezing every dime (and then some) out of the team in a way no one else around the league does.
2) despite the number, this is way, way, WAY better than Nylander walking at the end of the season. He gets better and more consistent every year, and he's our best playoff performer. Sucks that it can't be a reasonable number, but how many times have we said that before...