Donnie & Dhali: Craig Button on with Don Taylor and Rick Dhaliwal talking about William Nylander and what it might mean for Elias Pettersson.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Taylor: “First of all, Craig, I want to get your reaction to the story that broke out of Toronto, William Nylander $11.5 million per season over eight years. It kicks in next year. Your opinion of that deal?
Button: “You know what this is? I’m rubbing my hands together, and this is my best imitation of Elias Petterson.”
Dhaliwal: “Bingo.”
Button: “$11.5 million for William Nylander means, I think we talked on the show, is he worth $12 (million)? I don’t think there’s any question that Elias Pettersson is worth $12 million. It might be $13 million for what he’s capable of doing, tying them up on a long term contract.
And when you consider William Nylander has put themselves in an upper echelon of the league, but who’s right there with him? It’s Elias Patterson. And I don’t think there’s any question that Elias Patterson will get the same deal or I shouldn’t say the same deal, he’ll get at a minimum the same deal and probably deserving of more than William Nylander.
So, you know, when you look at the scenario that teams are confronted with, you’re looking at a scenario where a manager, in this case Brad Treliving has the choice. He can say yes or no. The market, the market price for William Nylander, I think was pretty much established. It just comes down to the manager now saying yes or no.
So, Brad said yes. He’s got $28 million coming off the cap. The caps going up by about $4 million. So now, when you say yes, it becomes a case of working the calculus to understand how do I build my team around these players.
And we hear a lot ‘Oh, you got to let them go.’ Okay, given the choice of having a group of players with no star players or a core, or a core and trying to build around them. I don’t think there’s any choice.
And the team that has shown that clearly, and shown a path, is the Vegas Golden Knights. They came in the league in 2017. They didn’t have these high draft picks, and then they just went to work and they said, ‘We’re going to be bold. Here’s what we’re going to do,’ and they found ways and I think that’s the manager’s job. I think that that’s what has to happen in, in Toronto, and certainly in other places because finding high-end star quality talent is really hard.”