Breaking: Friedman announces that it is over between the Maple Leafs and Nylander!

The contract dispute between the Toronto Maple Leafs and restricted free agent forward William Nylander will reach some sort of resolution by the end of this week as both sides are facing a 5 pm ET deadline on Dec. 1 to re-sign the young winger. The Leafs still have three options in hand: they can get him under contract before Saturday, trade him to another team willing to meet his salary demands, or simply leave him unsigned and revisit contract negotiations next summer, which means he will be ineligible to play the remainder of this season.

No matter what the Leafs choose to do with their young free agent, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman strongly believes this will be the last year we see Nylander as a Maple Leaf. Friedman was on the air with Tim and Sid earlier early on Wednesday and revealed how he thinks the Nylander situation will eventually end up becoming.

"The one thing I do believe, no matter what happens, is that this will be William Nylander's final season as a Maple Leaf. Whether he signs, or whether he doesn't sign, this is going to be it. Even if he does sign, I think Toronto trades him by the draft at the latest."

Should talks collapse as Saturday approaches, the Leafs could pull the trigger on a trade. Some pundits believe the Leafs could choice to sit him out for the rest of the season. The Maple Leafs and general manager Kyle Dubas have informed rival clubs that they “will not take on salary that disrupts its future cap situation.” Dubas remains set on coming to terms with Nylander, though has admitted that he needs to start looking into the possibility of moving him to a rival team if an agreement cannot be reached between both parties. 

The Leafs surely have proven that they can still produce offense without the services of Nylander. Maple Leafs Finnish forward Kasperi Kapanen is having a breakout season so far and surely benefited from the significant upgrade in linemates he got since the start of the regular calendar. Kapanen has tallied 10 goals and 17 points in 24 games so far this season as he wound up on Matthews' wing in the first month of the season. We are not saying he is as good as Nylander, but he has surely proven that he is a reliable scorer on the roster. 

What do you think about Friedman's bold statement on Nylander and his future in Toronto?