William Nylander has some contract advice for Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner
In case you haven’t heard, William Nylander put an end to a lengthy contract impasse with the Toronto Maple Leafs not too long ago.
The highly publicized dispute between the forward’s camp and Maple Leafs management was messy, causing some — at least temporary — tensions between the two sides. And with two young teammates due for fresh contracts at season’s end, Nylander now finds himself in a position to share his experience after going through a gruelling negotiation process.
So, naturally, he had some words of wisdom for his pals.
“Just get it done before the season starts. That’s probably the one thing you’d want, to get it out of the way,” Nylander told TSN’s Gino Reda when asked if he had any advice for pending restricted free agents Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
Nylander wound up sitting out Toronto’s first 28 games of this season before inking a six-year, $45-million deal just minutes before the Dec. 1 RFA signing deadline.
Both Matthews and Marner are skating through the final year of their respective entry-level contracts and will become RFA’s on July 1.
Each will be looking for $10 million-plus deals, with Matthews likely to garner closer to Connor McDavid’s $12.5-million cap hit. The first overall pick in 2016, who leads the Maple Leafs in goals per game with 16 in just 19 contests, said he’s willing to let his agent negotiate a new long-term deal during the season.
Marner, meanwhile, is scorching the scoresheet in his third NHL season, leading Toronto in points by a pretty wide margin. His father, Paul, recently jumped in to the Leafs news cycle, causing more anxiety for fans already anticipating a stressful off-season.
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