Former player and current analyst calls out William Nylander

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews isn't going anywhere - at least, not yet. By now, you've surely heard the news that he was re-signed to a four year contract that now makes him the highest paid player in the National Hockey League, surpassing the annual average salaries of both Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon. 

This means that the Leafs now have one high-priced pending free agent to take care of, and that would be Swedish-born forward William Nylander, who is entering the final year of his deal. However, by all accounts, he has no intention of taking any kind of a team-friendly discount. 

While speaking on TSN's OverDrive, former NHL goaltender Jamie McLennan appeared to try to knock Nylander down a few pegs. 

"If I'm William Nylander, take Auston Matthews off the table. There's gonna be a lot of people going 'Matthews makes $13.25M how can Nylander make $5M less'? Well, he's not Auston Matthews. Matthews is in a different stratosphere. Nylander has to be comparing himself more to Mitch Marner and other players around the league. Marner is a 100 point player, Nylander is not a 100 point player."

"There are comparables on both sides where they would like to get to, it's just unfortunate because we all play the comparison game and I guarantee you there's people out there going Matthews is not $5M better than Nylander. Take Nylander and Matthews comparison off the table. They're not [comparable]. Matthews has scored 60 and won a Hart Trophy and he's known as one of the top 5 players, maybe higher, on the planet and Nylander's not that."

Despite being a very talented player, is Nylander getting too high on himself and requesting unrealistic money? 

Recommended articles:

• TSN suggests Maple Leafs are “afraid” to make big trade!
• TSN suggests absolutely ridiculous solution in net for Maple Leafs