TORONTO – As practice wound down for the Toronto Maple Leafs, all of William Nylander’s teammates came over to congratulate him and give him a small tap with their stick.
They’ll get back to ribbing him soon enough.
Nylander agreed to an eight-year deal with Toronto worth US$92 million, the NHL team confirmed Monday. It is the largest contract in Maple Leafs history by total value and includes a no-movement clause.
The deal was long rumoured, so Nylander’s teammates had been having a little fun at his expense — something he can easily afford now — saying “you’re welcome” after earning assists on his two goals against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday. Alternate captain Morgan Rielly announced Monday that dinners would be on Nylander for the next little while.
“I didn’t do this by myself,” said Nylander after practice. “Thanks to my teammates and coaching staff, management, everybody that believed in me and especially the City of Toronto too, all the Leafs fans for all the support.”
The 27-year-old Nylander has 21 goals and 33 assists through 37 games this season. Toronto selected Nylander eighth overall in the 2014 draft. He has 198 goals and 286 assists over 558 career games with the Maple Leafs with a plus-28 defensive rating.
Nylander was set to become an unrestricted free agent in the off-season but said he had no interest in seeing if he could get a more lucrative contract elsewhere.
“This is the longest I’ve ever spent in one place in my entire life,” said the Swedish-Canadian player, who was born in Calgary while his father Michael played for the Flames. “It’s funny, the other day I was talking to a friend and said ‘then we go home,’ referring to Toronto.
“Without even thinking about it, it was home.”
Quiet in front of the cameras, Nylander is known for his sense of humour in the locker room and on the bench. He’s also got a flair for fashion and has recently starred in a series of television commercials where his family teases him on a video call while he rides on Toronto’s subway.
Maple Leafs captain John Tavares said that Nylander’s personality gave his teammates licence to tease him as the deal was finalized.
“A lot of us have been together here for a while so there’s a strong bond and trust amongst each other and getting to know each other’s personalities, the type of people that we are, so definitely a lot of fun to give it to him a little bit,” said Tavares. “Obviously, it’s a great day for him. A lot of hard work has gone into it to get to this point.”
Toronto now has approximately $45.75 million locked up in its so-called “core four” of Nylander, Tavares, centre Auston Matthews and star winger Mitch Marner next season.
“It’s huge to me, as a player, to feel that they are really investing in the core, betting on us,” Nylander said. “I think that we feel the same way.
“That’s ultimately why I wanted to stay for eight years. I wanted to give it a run, to try to win the Stanley Cup.”
Rielly is also is in the second year of an eight-year contract worth $7.5 million a season. Those five players will account for more than 60 per cent of the Maple Leafs’ salary cap space in the 2024-25 campaign.
All five have no-movement clauses in their deals.
“You’re going to have a cap that increases but we’re also not blind to the fact that there’s other areas of our team as we move forward that you have to have to improve and we’ll continue to do that,” said general manager Brad Treliving. “I don’t have any bold statements or proclamations to make today other than we got a really good player signed. Now we move on to the next piece.”
Toronto has seven other players set to become unrestricted free agents in the off-season and four restricted free agents.
Some of the most pressing questions are what to do with veteran defencemen TJ Brodie and Mark Giordano, who are becoming unrestricted free agents on July 1. Promising forward Nicholas Robertson and reliable defenceman Timothy Liljegren will become restricted free agents at the same time
“Every contract, every dollar, matters because we live in a cap world,” said Treliving. “I’m sure it will be hotly debated, but at the end of the day when you can get a top player signed, it’s a good day.”
Goaltending is another issue entirely. Martin Jones, who was signed a one-year deal with the team in August, will start for the Maple Leafs on Tuesday when Toronto hosts San Jose. Dennis Hildeby will serve as his backup as Joseph Woll still recovers from a high ankle sprain.
Ilya Samsonov, Toronto’s presumptive starter in net at the beginning of the season, was placed on waivers on Jan. 1 after he allowed six goals on 21 shots in a 6-5 overtime loss to the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets on Dec. 29. He cleared waivers and is now doing solo workouts with the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs’ American Hockey League affiliate.
“We’re going to huddle here later this afternoon, sort of map out the next piece of that,” said Treliving about Samsonov. “But it’s been really good, his on ice and off ice work has been good.
“We kind of mapped it out through today and then we’ll see.”
Head coach Sheldon Keefe, when leaving the Maple Leafs dressing room after meeting with reporters, had an outside-the-box solution to Toronto’s goalie situation.
“If I was on the ball, I’d have said I’d put Willy in,” quipped Keefe.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 8, 2024.