Finally some solace in William Nylander’s contract stalemate!

The 2023-24 NHL season got underway last night and the Toronto Maple Leafs will open theirs later tonight against the Montreal Canadiens. Focus will once again land on the Core Four in Toronto and questions will keep being asked about William Nylander’s contract stalemate. The forward has spent his entire career in Toronto and is now entering the last year of the six-year, $45 million deal signed back in 2018, and could have agreed to a new deal since July 1st, like teammate Auston Matthews, who inked a new deal.

Nylander has however told his agent he is willing to keep negotiating throughout the season, which he was previously unwilling to do when the same situation occurred in 2017. On top of that, insiders believe there is finally some solace when it comes to the stalemate, thanks to recent signings involving rival clubs across the league. Here are the updates Darren Dreger and Pierre LeBrun provided on Tuesday night’s edition of Insider Trading on TSN:

“The fact that general managers and these high-level players are meeting – it’s not unusual for GM’s and players to meet, especially when you’re talking about important contract talks. Exhibit “A” would be Kevin Cheveldayoff from the Winnipeg Jets. Cheveldayoff met with both Connor Hellebuyck and Mark Scheifele during training camp just to make sure that they were aligned. And then, of course, you keep the agents in tune. You get into the heavy grinding before you reach a conclusion of the contract talks. Same thing applies to [general manager] Kevyn Adams, who met multiple times with Rasmus Dahlin before signing a mega extension with the Buffalo Sabres. And I know that Brad Treliving, the general manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs, has met with William Nylander face-to-face, an important one-on-one, and there will be more in the near future.” 

Darren Dreger

LeBrun added: “Some positive vibes coming out of the William Nylander situation in the sense that Nylander [told] my colleague Jonas Siegel of The Athletic last week that he’s told his agent, ‘keep talking, don’t worry about the season starting.’ Unlike the last time he had a contract negotiation where he didn’t want to have negotiations throughout the year. That won’t be the case here. And while everyone involved in that Nylander negotiation has been extremely tight-lipped, what I can tell you from what I’m surmising is that everyone is on the same page as far as wanting to continue this dialogue and find that breakthrough and get that extension done for William Nylander. But there’s no sense that it’s imminent. I mean, honestly, whether it takes – a week or a month or the entire season, it could be all of the above.”

While there’s no imminent when it comes to an extension for Nylander with the Maple Leafs, it sounds like progress can still be made as the season unfolds. And it just got started!

Let’s see how the type of deals we’ve seen handed out recently affect Nylander’s and what it will mean for the financial landscape in Toronto.

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