Ray Ferraro implies Toronto needs to move on from William Nylander

So, what exactly does the future hold for Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander? 

He's a pending unrestricted free agent at this time next year, and there is rampant speculation as to what new Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving will be doing with the so-called "Core 4" of John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Nylander. 

Of course, Matthews himself is up for a new contract next summer as well, and a recently indication has been that he's looking to make NHL history with an AAV of over $14 million a season, which would be the highest for any player in hockey history.

But what about Nylander, who is entering the final deal of his current contract that carries an AAV of $6,962,366? 

According to both Darren Dreger and Ray Ferraro, perhaps the money that could be spent on Nylander would be better allocated elsewhere on the ice for the Leafs.

"We've talked about it a fair bit," Dreger said. "If you know you can't afford William Nylander because he's not going to relent and take a softer financial side in this, and nor should he have to, but what is the market look like? Because what we've seen here of late, the market isn't strong even for top end guys like him when you carry a price tag of $10 million or more. It's tough.

"It is tough, and he shouldn't take a back seat to those guys," Ferraro responded. "He really shouldn't. I think Nylander is terrific, and they are jammed up in Toronto in my opinion because of the allocation of the money. It's not so much the people, it's the allocation of the money."

"At some point, they have to reallocate that money, and you can't just wait until John Tavares' $11 million is off the books. That's the one that really gums up anything more than anything else. Nylander has shown us he's stubborn, and if he doesn't believe it's the right deal, he's going to hang out until he doesn't have to hang out anymore. And he'll push as far as he can, that's what he did with the last deal." 

So, what would it mean to Ferraro if the Leafs were in fact to offer Nylander a max deal?

"That means you're basically saying that you have confidence that this group of leaders can lead your team through a playoff run. And I don't know what would make me confidence enough in that. I would want to reallocate the money, and I'd hate to do it, because Nylander is a terrific player." 

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