There’s another prominent member of the Maple Leafs who can extend his contract next summer: William Nylander.
It’s wild to think that nearly four years have passed since Nylander signed his six-year contract on the last possible day back in Dec. 2018.
He’s entering year five of that deal this season and like Auston Matthews, can extend his contract with the Leafs next July.
Advertisement
“I mean, I haven’t really thought about it,” Nylander told The Athletic. “But the only thing I can think of is, if we have a great year here and we go deep and hopefully do what we want to do then obviously it’d be unreal to stay.”
Nylander is coming off his most productive season in the NHL. He established new career highs with 34 goals, 46 assists, and 80 points during the regular season, and notched a point per game – three goals, four assists – in the Leafs seven-game loss to Tampa in the playoffs.
He’s 26 now, an age when most players are who they are in the league.
For Nylander, that’s a highly productive, often dazzling, talent who’s defied those who thought his contract, which was finally signed after the longest contract dispute of the salary cap era, was an over-payment by the Leafs. The deal arguably set the standard for the kind of long-term bets (paying for upside) NHL teams – think Ottawa with Tim Stutzle’s eight-year, $66.8 million extension – now make regularly with young players.
Nylander’s $6.9 million cap hit ranks 85th in the NHL this season and 57th among forwards. He tied for 33rd in league scoring last season.
The coming season will undoubtedly help determine what his next contract looks like and whether it comes via an extension with the Leafs next summer. Team results next spring will inevitably play a massive role in whether those discussions happen at all.
Another leap from Nylander, one that coincides with the Leafs making a deep run in the playoffs, and the possibility of an extension rises. That deal could carry a cap hit that starts with a nine.
More of the same postseason failures for the Leafs, on the other hand, and obviously the possibility of an extension diminishes. Nylander’s future in Toronto might also come into question.
Nylander had only a so-so second half last season but still finished with nearly a point per game. Has he already reached his peak? Is there a 90-point player in there somewhere? A more willing and consistent defender?
Could Nylander score 40 goals? He’s reached the 30-goal plateau in each of the last two full seasons.
“Yeah, I think I can do it,” Nylander said. “I think I had a period (last season) where I was going really strong at the beginning of the year and then I had a dip of not scoring goals for a little while there. If I can get that consistency through that period where I dipped a little bit last year – what did I have 34? — maybe I could get 40. Obviously that’s a goal that I would want to try to get.”
One reason to think he could get there, beyond a calibre of shot that no Leaf but Matthews can touch, is the frequency in which Nylander is now shooting the puck. He launched a career-high 256 shots last season, which ranked 20th in the league. He fired more than three shots per game.
Nylander says his confidence shooting the puck really picked up during the 2019-20 season when he scored what was then a career-best 31 goals in only 68 games (a 37-goal pace). It was then that he “started feeling like I could beat guys more.”
Asked if he’s reached his peak as a player, Nylander said, “No, I think there’s another level.”
Advertisement
“I think it’s more – I’ve had games where I’ve been playing good, dominant with the puck and everything,” he said. “And then like I said, it’s more of a consistency thing where maybe a couple games go by and I’m not at my best level. I think if I play at my top (level) like I do, I’ve just gotta keep doing that more.”
How to do that?
“I think it’s just a little bit more mental,” he said. “Keep pushing through. Like, you’re playing golf, you’re playing 18 holes, maybe by hole 11 your head’s out of it. But you’ve just got to stick with it and keep going. I think that’s where the mental factor (kicks in) and you’ve gotta push through that. OK, have a so-so two, three games. But you don’t want to have 10 games where you’re not playing to where you know you can play.”
Partly the result of a faltering connection with John Tavares, Nylander had an up and down second half, including a stretch of 20 games, from early January until late February, in which he scored only four times. Deep slumps like that are what he’s hoping to eliminate.
Nylander enters this season listed at 204 pounds, up eight pounds from the same time last fall. He’ll also be donning a tinted visor for the first time in hopes of quashing the “eye migraines” which have bothered him at times last season.
Nylander and his family — his brother, sisters, and parents — gathered for a summer holiday in France in the offseason. They spent some time exploring Monaco as well. Nylander says they ate good food, including one particularly delicious sea bass, and shared rare quality time as a unit, including family tennis matches back in Sweden that also included Nylander’s close pal, David Pastrnak.
View this post on Instagram
Toronto feels like home now, Nylander says ahead of his eighth season with the Leafs.
“I think this is the longest I’ve ever lived in one place,” he said of the city where he’s lived since he was drafted by the Leafs in 2014. “My dad, he moved (us) around. He maybe played two years, three years at one spot. Then we moved and stuff like that. So this is probably the longest I’ve ever been in one place.
Advertisement
“I just love the city, to be honest. It’s a great city. At the same time as it’s a big city, it’s still a little bit more European. It’s not like you’re walking around New York or whatever. It’s obviously smaller. It’s got a lot of everything.”
Whether he stays here for the long haul will depend a lot on what goes down this season.
(Top photo: Nick Turchiaro/ USA Today)
