Sportsnet: Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee discuss William Nylander’s contract situation with the Toronto Maple Leafs and if he could be headed to unrestricted free agency.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
McKee: “Well the thing that stuck out to me about this piece and it’s like this seeing it laid out in front of me, was the Lewis Gross aspect of this. When it’s like you think, oh maybe they’re just gonna get it done. The number is gonna get met.
But it’s like maybe that’s not what they’re looking for. And that’s not what the advice is. And it’s like that part of it to me is what jumped out. That maybe they just want to go to UFA.
Bourne: “Well if you’re …”
McKee: “Maybe they want this, like it’s not…”
Bourne: “Like if they’re gonna overpay you, you can sign but otherwise like, a lot of Lewis Gross’s clients tend to make it yeah you UFA.”
McKee: “Which I thought was like, that just seen them like listed out there like, you know, Brandon Saad, Krug, Dumoulin, Noel Acciari. I know these guys aren’t in the same class, but a lot of them just go, instead of signing with their old team anyways.
Kypreos: “But they had been down this path before. Obviously, he wasn’t a UFA, he was a restricted free agent but it still cost two months of the season. Two and a half months. So they, they know they’re dealing with an agent that has a comfort zone to go right to the very end.”
Bourne: “Yeah.”
Kypreos: “Now, do they ..”
Do they wait, do they wait for a Chicago Blackhawks team just to say to the Leafs, ‘you want to match it cause this is where we’re at?’ Is that, is that where it’s going to head?
Bourne: “Well sure. And you know the scary part, you know again mentioned in this piece is just that if you lose Willy Nylander, like let’s say you’re like okay, we value the cap space or we were going to trade him at the deadline, or whatever, if you don’t have Willy Kneeland on your roster, and then it’s Mitch Marner’s turn for negotiation. you’re screwed, because you can’t lose them both.
So all of a sudden, you know, Mitch has you up against a wall at that point where you’re saying we gotta keep one of our elite wingers, our game breakers, our guy who plays the most minutes, you know, and so that changes things were …”
Kypreso: “So do you pick one now, you pick one later,
Bourne: “You do that.”
Kypreos: “Or you try to find a way to get them both?
Bourne: “You make a decision. You either pick one, if that’s whatever or you sign Willie for the extra 500 (thousand) that he’s looking for.
Kypreos: “Do you see any world at all where they think about moving him in March,
Bourne: “Willy?
Kypreos: “Yes. Because I don’t.”
Bourne: “The only reason I would say yes is because Treliving has made it clear he doesn’t want to do the (Johnny) Gaudreau thing again where he just gets, I can’t do anything and the guy just leaves.”
McKee: “Where, it’s remarkable how similar the situation is. To think about, like to have a guy that would move from one situation to come into another situation with the same, I got a really elite player that’s on the last year with like, is it, they’re the same agent?
Bourne: “I think so. Lewis Gross”
McKee: “Lewis Gross. So it’s like, I can’t think of many like I feels like he’s having Groundhog Day, like deja vu here.”