Listening to 32 Thoughts this morning Friedman said three things that caught my attention
1. He believed since the Leafs never liked Willys original asking price, that they looked hard to find a impact defenceman to use this money on but couldn’t find anyone that they believed would have a greater impact than Willy
2. The rumour of the 8 x 10 in the summer is not true and that Nylander’s agent is said to give a number and not budge very much
3. That since Nylander’s camp believed Auston never took a “discount” they weren’t going to take less either
DougFordsGamblingAds
It’s just sad that so few want to re-sign at a favorable number for the team. It’s never ‘hey that guy really wants to win as a Leaf!’. Morgan Reilly and Max Domi are exceptions.
Especially after the playoffs where our big-4 scored 3 goals in 5 games (including powerplays).
B0_SSMAN
Idk about y’all but I love having great players play for the hockey team I cheer for
PrailinesNDick
I never expected Willy or Matthews to sign for a discount. I do still believe that Tavares will sign for a very steep discount (say $3m or less) and Marner will sign a much better contract (maybe exactly the Willy contract) to ease some of the pressure he’s felt from this last contract.
In my head this all works out fine. Matthews $13.5 Willy $11.5 Marner $11.5 Tavares $3 is $39.5m.
That’s more than enough left to fill the rest of the roster. We have basically no bad money on the books – maybe Kampf and Reaves are your biggest complaints and they are under $4m total.
dober12345
Really don’t like this. Why give him 8 years lol. Really worried he’ll drop down and average 80 points again as he gets his bag
theguyishere16
With all the shit he has taken over the years, its crazy Nylander is the one that is going to sign max term first.
Showtime98
Get your bag Willy!
e1744a525099d9a53c04
Like the player, glad we get to keep him, too much money. Hope he grows into it.
Matthews: 517 GP, 329 G, 258 A, 587 P ($13.25m x 4)
Nylander: 558 GP, 198 G, 286 A, 484 P ($11.5m x 8)
Marner: 544 GP, 183 G, 411 A, 594 P (TBD)
thisisdu
Well, he took the least out of the three last time. So I wouldn’t take a discount either if I were him.
CocoKeel22
No one is complaining about having amazing players. They are complaining about these ridiculous contracts relative to the rest of the league.
SweetWithHeat
These guys are lethal in the regular season and even deadlier at the negotiation table
lLikeCats
IDGAF if they take a discount or not. I want this team together.
Yeah it would be great to win in the playoffs but having an exciting team that contends every year is worth it too.
Not their fault that the NHL is a cheap league. Pay the man and be a contending team for another 5-7 years. If the Leafs are meant to win, they will win.
Shaving a million of the top players isn’t going to save much to make a difference.
AustonDadthews
leafs fleeced on another contract negotiation unfortunately. please just win a negotiation one time.
adwrx
I really like Nylander and I’m happy he’s staying. I could care less if Marner leaves
PhilMcCraken2001
Ok boys, everyone got paid…. Now let’s star winning here
jdeyell
Not a single other team has more than one player make double digit salary
Rynosirrus
We aren’t gonna win anything with these contracts man
Hoardzunit
Beyond effing stupid to give him a full NMC. He got the money but you give him that additional bonus?!? He should get either the money or the NMC. Not both. These guys suck at negotiating.
CMDRShepardN7
What’s holding up the announcement? Chinese New Year?
Kid-Goose
Happy willy is still on the team, cant support that cap hit though, at absolute best if we continues the pace he’s at for most of this deal itll be a fair deal. We love to complain about marner but marner can PK extremely well and is a selke finalist and 10.9 is seen as an overpay. But Nylander who prior to this year has been at best a PPG player who is bad defensively and 0 hardware or nominations signing for 11.5 is acceptable. I just dont get it
MalevolentFather
I think it’s ridiculous that there is a salary cap tbh. Do it like baseball and have a luxury tax, but the fact that players are the ones who are taking the bad PR hit for asking for what they are worth in FA while the owners are printing money hand over fist is sad.
postmodern_lasagna
Best playoff performer on pace for a 100 point season. A better percentage of cap than when a Marner signed and it’s for UFA years which are harder to acquire. Would like it more if he could play C though. Might get lean when Tavares starts to decline
SpinningDickTwist
I’m happy the Willy who is playing his ass off every minute of every shift of every game this year is staying. I really am.
But we all know this could go bad very, very, very fast if Willy reverts back to not working his ass off every minute of every shift of every game.
Then it becomes a disaster contract and we’re stuck with a player who never broke 90 points before this year and broke 80 points in only 2 years of his 8 year career prior to this year.
And he’s being given this stupid amount of money based on 37 games played this season where he’s trying his ass off..
There is bad juju written all over this contract.
Ultimately, it all comes down to Nylander and his effort. Will he justify the contract by playing hard every minute of every shift of every game? Will he revert back to being one of the most talented but laziest players in the league which he was prior to this season?
Don’t fuck us Willy
JamesCurtis24
Auston Matthews never took a “discount” because he is the two highest things on the payment hierarchy, a 50G-60G scorer, and a #1C. Nylander is neither of those things.
Nylander at 11.5 is an over-payment. He’s not fucking David Pastrnak. Matthews is also several years younger and there is NO fat on the term of his deal. There is a fair degree of certainty, or it’s much more likely he’ll be the best version of himself during the full term.
Nylander is 28 when this deal kicks in. The curve of player production by age does not go upwards once you hit your late 20s and into your 30s. It goes down. Now, for Nylander, “regressing” might mean to 35G and 80P. That’s great, but now we’re paying him Pastrnak money to produce that… It’s not that Nylander can’t have more 100+P 40G seasons, it’s just the gamble based on all factors is significantly against it. Particularly that he’s never been this player in any prior season.
It’s disgusting and unwarranted. I’d have went to July 1st. If a team actually offers Nylander 11.5×7, THEN you lock him in. He’s not going to walk away from the Leafs because of the 8th year they can offer. Any 8-year-deal the Leafs are willing to match is extremely more lucrative, because Nylander would be 35 at the end of a 7-year-deal, and he’s not going to get 11.5M on a 1-year-deal anywhere to effectively match what the Leafs could give. A team would have to pay Willy 13.1M AAV to match the Leafs paying Nylander 11.5×8.
And if some teams wants to lose their heads and offer willy 13×7, LET. HIM. WALK. You can find 3 or 4 players to balance out the roster with that money. I’m willing to go that route. You could also get to July 1st and have a Gaudreau situation where you have 115P, and all those whispers you heard of teams being interested weren’t as serious when push comes to shove.
Btw, the Canucks let Bo Horvat walk when he had 31G and 54P in 49GP. Yes, they got assets, but none of those assets are players on their roster today, and the Canucks are in a MUCH better situation than they were with Horvat putting up those incredible numbers for them. That doesn’t mean every situation works out that way, but it does mean you’re not handed a guaranteed certificate of being worse if Nylander walks. And I’m willing to put up this fight to reset the cap culture. It’s not even about asking for a hometown discount, it’s about asking him to fall in line with his legitimate comparables, which is closer to 11.5-11.9% of the cap, which is in the 10M AAV range. There’s zero support for him making 13.8% of the cap.
I don’t want to hear about Matthews. I say again, his age, his being a 50-60G, #1C, that’s how those guys are paid. This is not how 80P wingers are paid, who are having and anomaly season on a contract year. These contracts have a history of backfiring. See Huberdeau, Gaudreau, Kadri, even Horvat I just mentioned is not the player he was when he left Vancouver. And for Nylander, that could simply mean not being a 40G, 110P guy, he becomes at 35G, 80P guy. That’s not good enough. And betting on Nylander putting 110+P from age 28 on is an extremely bad gamble when he’s got 37 games of history that support it, and 8 years prior that DO NOT support it. It supports him being an 11.5-11.9% cap hit guy, which is high 9’s, 10M AAV.
cdogg30
Willy has been great this season but oh man this contract is going to look just awful in a couple seasons. I guess the Leafs are happy with the status quo. Regular season heros.
TMLTBJ
Happy he’s back but it really seems like Matthews, Marner and Nylander all got to have their cakes and eat it too. It’s going to be very hard to win a Stanley Cup with a constant rotating cast of depth, bargain bin and rookie players
Justinarian
At 11.5 he best be a 100 point per season guy from here on out. This season can’t be just a one off. Post season game needs to be elevated too. Also defensive game. I think he’s worth about 10 but in no world was he gonna be paid fair market value. He’d be paid compared to Marner.
knigmich
so the GM who gave one of the worst contracts every (huberdeau) is giving our not even career PPG player a big pay day…. this is awful. oh nylander you won’t take a discount to stay here but you say you love toronto? well then lets give you a no trade claus too for no reason. This is going to hurt in a couple years.
its a shame we couldn’t sign hyman for 5.5 million case we had to give away that money to matthews and nylander on their next contracts. All these guys had to do what take a mill or two off and we’d be alright, if matthews was 11 and nylander was 9 it would be great but no, we can’t have nice things
ATARI2600s
I have said “Protect Willy Styles at all costs”.. little did I know.. In all, I love the guy.. glad I’ll see him in a leafs jersey along with 17 and 45 year old defensemen 😉
Okazakis_Fragments
I will admit, the starts not taking any amount of discount stings after looking at teams like Boston. But it is what it is, we get to watch some elite players for years to come.
I want this team to get some serious playoff success so bad. Will shut up the r/hockey haters claiming this is a recipe for guaranteed failure. Leafs fans know how close our playoff series’ have been.
31 Comments
Listening to 32 Thoughts this morning Friedman said three things that caught my attention
1. He believed since the Leafs never liked Willys original asking price, that they looked hard to find a impact defenceman to use this money on but couldn’t find anyone that they believed would have a greater impact than Willy
2. The rumour of the 8 x 10 in the summer is not true and that Nylander’s agent is said to give a number and not budge very much
3. That since Nylander’s camp believed Auston never took a “discount” they weren’t going to take less either
It’s just sad that so few want to re-sign at a favorable number for the team. It’s never ‘hey that guy really wants to win as a Leaf!’. Morgan Reilly and Max Domi are exceptions.
Especially after the playoffs where our big-4 scored 3 goals in 5 games (including powerplays).
Idk about y’all but I love having great players play for the hockey team I cheer for
I never expected Willy or Matthews to sign for a discount. I do still believe that Tavares will sign for a very steep discount (say $3m or less) and Marner will sign a much better contract (maybe exactly the Willy contract) to ease some of the pressure he’s felt from this last contract.
In my head this all works out fine. Matthews $13.5 Willy $11.5 Marner $11.5 Tavares $3 is $39.5m.
That’s more than enough left to fill the rest of the roster. We have basically no bad money on the books – maybe Kampf and Reaves are your biggest complaints and they are under $4m total.
Really don’t like this. Why give him 8 years lol. Really worried he’ll drop down and average 80 points again as he gets his bag
With all the shit he has taken over the years, its crazy Nylander is the one that is going to sign max term first.
Get your bag Willy!
Like the player, glad we get to keep him, too much money. Hope he grows into it.
Matthews: 517 GP, 329 G, 258 A, 587 P ($13.25m x 4)
Nylander: 558 GP, 198 G, 286 A, 484 P ($11.5m x 8)
Marner: 544 GP, 183 G, 411 A, 594 P (TBD)
Well, he took the least out of the three last time. So I wouldn’t take a discount either if I were him.
No one is complaining about having amazing players. They are complaining about these ridiculous contracts relative to the rest of the league.
These guys are lethal in the regular season and even deadlier at the negotiation table
IDGAF if they take a discount or not. I want this team together.
Yeah it would be great to win in the playoffs but having an exciting team that contends every year is worth it too.
Not their fault that the NHL is a cheap league. Pay the man and be a contending team for another 5-7 years. If the Leafs are meant to win, they will win.
Shaving a million of the top players isn’t going to save much to make a difference.
leafs fleeced on another contract negotiation unfortunately. please just win a negotiation one time.
I really like Nylander and I’m happy he’s staying. I could care less if Marner leaves
Ok boys, everyone got paid…. Now let’s star winning here
Not a single other team has more than one player make double digit salary
We aren’t gonna win anything with these contracts man
Beyond effing stupid to give him a full NMC. He got the money but you give him that additional bonus?!? He should get either the money or the NMC. Not both. These guys suck at negotiating.
What’s holding up the announcement? Chinese New Year?
Happy willy is still on the team, cant support that cap hit though, at absolute best if we continues the pace he’s at for most of this deal itll be a fair deal. We love to complain about marner but marner can PK extremely well and is a selke finalist and 10.9 is seen as an overpay. But Nylander who prior to this year has been at best a PPG player who is bad defensively and 0 hardware or nominations signing for 11.5 is acceptable. I just dont get it
I think it’s ridiculous that there is a salary cap tbh. Do it like baseball and have a luxury tax, but the fact that players are the ones who are taking the bad PR hit for asking for what they are worth in FA while the owners are printing money hand over fist is sad.
Best playoff performer on pace for a 100 point season. A better percentage of cap than when a Marner signed and it’s for UFA years which are harder to acquire. Would like it more if he could play C though. Might get lean when Tavares starts to decline
I’m happy the Willy who is playing his ass off every minute of every shift of every game this year is staying. I really am.
But we all know this could go bad very, very, very fast if Willy reverts back to not working his ass off every minute of every shift of every game.
Then it becomes a disaster contract and we’re stuck with a player who never broke 90 points before this year and broke 80 points in only 2 years of his 8 year career prior to this year.
And he’s being given this stupid amount of money based on 37 games played this season where he’s trying his ass off..
There is bad juju written all over this contract.
Ultimately, it all comes down to Nylander and his effort. Will he justify the contract by playing hard every minute of every shift of every game? Will he revert back to being one of the most talented but laziest players in the league which he was prior to this season?
Don’t fuck us Willy
Auston Matthews never took a “discount” because he is the two highest things on the payment hierarchy, a 50G-60G scorer, and a #1C. Nylander is neither of those things.
Nylander at 11.5 is an over-payment. He’s not fucking David Pastrnak. Matthews is also several years younger and there is NO fat on the term of his deal. There is a fair degree of certainty, or it’s much more likely he’ll be the best version of himself during the full term.
Nylander is 28 when this deal kicks in. The curve of player production by age does not go upwards once you hit your late 20s and into your 30s. It goes down. Now, for Nylander, “regressing” might mean to 35G and 80P. That’s great, but now we’re paying him Pastrnak money to produce that… It’s not that Nylander can’t have more 100+P 40G seasons, it’s just the gamble based on all factors is significantly against it. Particularly that he’s never been this player in any prior season.
It’s disgusting and unwarranted. I’d have went to July 1st. If a team actually offers Nylander 11.5×7, THEN you lock him in. He’s not going to walk away from the Leafs because of the 8th year they can offer. Any 8-year-deal the Leafs are willing to match is extremely more lucrative, because Nylander would be 35 at the end of a 7-year-deal, and he’s not going to get 11.5M on a 1-year-deal anywhere to effectively match what the Leafs could give. A team would have to pay Willy 13.1M AAV to match the Leafs paying Nylander 11.5×8.
And if some teams wants to lose their heads and offer willy 13×7, LET. HIM. WALK. You can find 3 or 4 players to balance out the roster with that money. I’m willing to go that route. You could also get to July 1st and have a Gaudreau situation where you have 115P, and all those whispers you heard of teams being interested weren’t as serious when push comes to shove.
Btw, the Canucks let Bo Horvat walk when he had 31G and 54P in 49GP. Yes, they got assets, but none of those assets are players on their roster today, and the Canucks are in a MUCH better situation than they were with Horvat putting up those incredible numbers for them. That doesn’t mean every situation works out that way, but it does mean you’re not handed a guaranteed certificate of being worse if Nylander walks. And I’m willing to put up this fight to reset the cap culture. It’s not even about asking for a hometown discount, it’s about asking him to fall in line with his legitimate comparables, which is closer to 11.5-11.9% of the cap, which is in the 10M AAV range. There’s zero support for him making 13.8% of the cap.
I don’t want to hear about Matthews. I say again, his age, his being a 50-60G, #1C, that’s how those guys are paid. This is not how 80P wingers are paid, who are having and anomaly season on a contract year. These contracts have a history of backfiring. See Huberdeau, Gaudreau, Kadri, even Horvat I just mentioned is not the player he was when he left Vancouver. And for Nylander, that could simply mean not being a 40G, 110P guy, he becomes at 35G, 80P guy. That’s not good enough. And betting on Nylander putting 110+P from age 28 on is an extremely bad gamble when he’s got 37 games of history that support it, and 8 years prior that DO NOT support it. It supports him being an 11.5-11.9% cap hit guy, which is high 9’s, 10M AAV.
Willy has been great this season but oh man this contract is going to look just awful in a couple seasons. I guess the Leafs are happy with the status quo. Regular season heros.
Happy he’s back but it really seems like Matthews, Marner and Nylander all got to have their cakes and eat it too. It’s going to be very hard to win a Stanley Cup with a constant rotating cast of depth, bargain bin and rookie players
At 11.5 he best be a 100 point per season guy from here on out. This season can’t be just a one off. Post season game needs to be elevated too. Also defensive game. I think he’s worth about 10 but in no world was he gonna be paid fair market value. He’d be paid compared to Marner.
so the GM who gave one of the worst contracts every (huberdeau) is giving our not even career PPG player a big pay day…. this is awful. oh nylander you won’t take a discount to stay here but you say you love toronto? well then lets give you a no trade claus too for no reason. This is going to hurt in a couple years.
its a shame we couldn’t sign hyman for 5.5 million case we had to give away that money to matthews and nylander on their next contracts. All these guys had to do what take a mill or two off and we’d be alright, if matthews was 11 and nylander was 9 it would be great but no, we can’t have nice things
I have said “Protect Willy Styles at all costs”.. little did I know.. In all, I love the guy.. glad I’ll see him in a leafs jersey along with 17 and 45 year old defensemen 😉
I will admit, the starts not taking any amount of discount stings after looking at teams like Boston. But it is what it is, we get to watch some elite players for years to come.
I want this team to get some serious playoff success so bad. Will shut up the r/hockey haters claiming this is a recipe for guaranteed failure. Leafs fans know how close our playoff series’ have been.
INTO MY VEINS!!!!