Nylander standoff heads into final period
The end of the stalemate between Maple Leafs forward William Nylander and general manager Kyle Dubas is getting closer, if only because the calendar says so.
Nylander has until Dec. 1 to sign a contract — filed with the NHL’s Central Registry by 5 p.m. that day — or he will be ineligible to play in the NHL this season.
The Leafs, who opened their so-called “window” to winning with the summertime signing of free agent John Tavares, would most likely need Nylander or whatever assets he can be traded for in order to get by Boston and Tampa in the first two rounds of the playoffs. So the staredown is on. The question is, will either side blink? “It’s a tough situation, and I think it’s really going to get interesting,” says Brian Lawton, who has been a player, agent and GM in the NHL and now works for NHL Network. “It’s up to Kyle Dubas to really listen closely, to create flexibility amongst his team. He can’t get too focused on, ‘It has to be this way.’
“If you don’t have some ability to compromise, you’re in trouble.”
Both sides have put a cone of silence on talks, though they have intimated they’re willing to outlast the other. At this point, they may just be killing time until the end of November, waiting to see what the other guy does.
“I think by Nov. 25th you’ll see the parties reach out to each other,” Lawton says.
“Both parties realize there’s an impending deadline, and they’re kind of killing time.”
The two sides are reportedly still a sizable amount of money apart. Nylander is said to be asking for at least $8 million (U.S.) per season on a long-term deal, $6.5 million on a shortterm. The Leafs are said to be offering about $2 million less on both fronts.
“They’ve got to get it somewhere in between,” says former GM Doug MacLean, now working for Sportsnet. “If you slightly overpay, and you can get him done, you can still move him when your cap crunch hits for reasonably good assets. And by then maybe he’s not the guy you want to move.”
This is Dubas’s first season as an NHL GM and his first troubling contract situation. On the one hand, he likes the player, respects his talent and wants to win. On the other, he can’t be seen to be soft, or to cave in. The book on him is being written as agents assess his abilities.
“I think he’s got to make the statement, either: ‘You can’t do this to me,’ or ‘We’re only going to pay you what you’re worth,’ or ‘We’re not going to give you more just because we’re the Toronto Maple Leafs,’ ” says former GM Neil Smith, now working for ESPN.
Dubas has publicly said he will not trade Nylander. At the time, it sounded like an assurance to a player who would be worried he’d be traded for an asset the team might need more, namely a right-handed defenceman.
But, at this point, it could also sound like a threat: Sign or don’t play, because there won’t be a trade.
If Nylander misses the entire season and the Leafs retain his rights then his bargaining pow- er will not have changed. He will not get the minimum of 10 NHL games needed to acquire arbitration rights.
“He’s put himself in a spot where he has absolutely no rights, he’s sitting there hoping they’re going to pay him what he wants. But he has no rights,” Smith says.
“I’ve never understood a player or agent where they have no rights but think the team can’t do without him.”
But it could delay his signing until after a new salary cap landscape is formed — there’s new money coming into the league with betting partnerships rolling out. As well the contracts of both Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner will need to be renewed next summer. Nylander, if he signs a long-term deal before those two, could be left behind financially.
“For me, both sides are up against it,” MacLean says. “You’ve got a 22-year-old who shouldn’t be sitting out. The Leafs are in a tough situation because of where they are for the future.
“The Leafs can get by without him. But in today’s cap era and with windows tightening up on opportunities to win because of the restraints of the system, that puts pressure on the Leafs as well. How do you have an asset like this sitting out to July 1? Or next October? And not get his services, or not get anything in return?” As an agent, Lawton represented two players who sat out long stretches in a salary dispute.
Mark Parrish never dressed for the Colorado Avalanche, who drafted him in 1996 and were forced to trade him to Florida in 1999. R.J. Umberger was drafted by Vancouver in 2001, but never signed due to a salary dispute. He sat out the entire 2003-04 season before his rights were traded to the New York Rangers; he ultimately signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Flyers.
“It was just business. In the end we had a disagreement — not dissimilar to (Nylander) — over the value of a player,” Lawton says. “We had a lot of great conversations. We had a lot of antagonistic conversations. But it was never anything but professional.”
Lawton said Nylander’s agent, Lewis Gross, and Dubas would be talking more to the people around each of them, bracing them for any direction the talks might go. Gross’s circle includes William’s father, former player Michael Nylander. Dubas would be including coach Mike Babcock and president Brendan Shanahan, as well as assistants Brandon Pridham and Laurence Gilman in the conversation.
“The side that wins is the side that does the most prep (preparation work),” says Lawton.