TSN: Chris Johnston on TSN OverDrive on pending UFAs William Nylander‘s contract number that keeps going up.
** NHLRumors.com transcribing
Jeff O’Neill: “CJ when it comes to William Nylander, I know you’ve probably been asked this 100 times probably today but there’s bizarre takes. It’s one of those things where it can go from one end of the spectrum to another, where do you just kind of lie on the ordeal?
Johnston: “Like what, like what’s going to happen next with a contract you mean?
O’Neill: “Or just everything because it just kind of seems like it’s blown up since Sweden and it’s like 17 great games. And it’s like the whole world seems to be just fascinated on how much he deserves. How much he ultimately gets? What’s he worth? Is he better than Marner? It’s just created this life of its own.
Johnston: “Yeah, it’s funny. I was actually talking to an agent this afternoon about something totally not related to this, he’s like…”
O’Neill: “A rival agent?”
Johnston: “Well, it’s not his agent, and I’ll put it that way. It was not, our conversation was about something totally different. I mean, he goes, I can’t get over how every hour there’s like a new update on this guy. Like just, you know, the minute-by-minute coverage of Nylanders, you know, contracts, what’s going to happen is, is kind of gone nuts.
And look, it’s a kind of a perfect storm, right? I mean, we’ve all been through this enough. When you have a frontline player with an open question contractually, you know, that tends to dominate our discussion here. And then on top of that, you know, Nylander goes out and puts up points and 17 straight games. You know, he goes to Sweden, probably one time in his career, he’s gonna play an NHL game in Sweden. He has five points and the two games. He ends it with an overtime winner. Yeah, he’s doing talk shows in a tank top over there.
Like, like the guy, it’s just, it’s almost like, the fact this has all come together, and you know, even when we were doing our hits back in mid September, right, what was the question? Like, how was Nylander gonna handle this contract year? What’s, what’s the, what’s the dynamic? How’s this all gonna work out? And I mean, it’s a pretty emphatic answer over the last six or seven weeks of what we’ve seen and so, you know, I do think that, that is, that’s why it’s risen to the level and has.
You know, my sense is to that the Leafs and his agents have been pretty active and continuing to discuss a contract extension. I think both sides, they’ll have a lot of desire to get that done. I don’t know that, no part of the sense of the an impasse or anything like that, and they’re trying to make it happen.
And so you add it together and you bash in that it’s Toronto, and it’s someone who’s sort of just commanding the spotlight up near the league leaders in scoring, really for the first time in his career, this deep into a season. You know, on pace for 50 goals and like 130 points.
You know, it’s been a crazy few weeks. Now, just if, if nothing happens, contractually. You know, it probably is going to settle down. I think it’s fair to assume he’s not going to get a point in all 82 games this year. Although you know, I keep saying that, he just keeps doing what he’s doing.
But you know, you’re right. It’s, it’s a lot but he’s making it you know, I think he’s showing us why, one thing we all know about the guy after watching him for eight years here is that he’s, he’s the perfect type of player for a market like Toronto because it seems like the more pressure is on him, there’s more focus is on him, you know, he’s playing even better.
I don’t think that any of this has fazed him. And that’s what you need, because we’ve all seen players come through town that have had a lot of success elsewhere, and it doesn’t translate to a market like this, but I think William almost, almost feels them to a degree.”