Breaking: McKenzie drops a last minute update on Nylander contract talks.

It's hard to believe that we have come all the way down to the wire but here we are. 

It's Saturday December 1st and the Toronto Maple Leafs and restricted free agent forward William Nylander now only have a matter of hours remaining before they can come to terms on a new deal. In spite of that it appears that there remains a gap between both sides, although at this point that may purely be posturing as both parties try and secure the best possible deal they can before the final hour. One thing is certain though, one way or another this ordeal will be over by the time the day is done and one National Hockey League insider believes that only two options remain. 

TSN NHL insider Bob McKenzie dropped a last minute update on the Nylander negotiations on Saturday morning revealing that he no longer believes a trade is likely in this scenario. Instead McKenzie stated that he believes Nylander will either sign a deal at the very last minute or will actually spend an entire season of his young career sitting on the sidelines, potentially losing millions of dollars in the process as well. 

From McKenzie:

Not to over simplify things but it’s pretty elementary: Toronto will make its final, best offer to William Nylander today. He’ll either accept it or not. It’s highly highly highly unlikely, tho technically still possible, he’ll be traded. Sign or sit for the year seems to sum it up. If it gets done, it sure seems like the likelihood (not to be confused with a sure thing) is it being a 6 year deal somewhere just north of David Pastrnak’s 6 x $6.67M. How much North is the obvious key here. I’d be surprised if it’s as high as $7M but we shall see.

I think that is a number that the majority of the Maple Leafs' fan base would be happy with, especially if it meant getting Nylander back into the line up for what has already been a solid season thus far for the Leafs, however if that number were to exceed the $7 million dollar mark I'm not so sure fans would be so accepting. It seems that Nylander has burned a great deal of the social capital that he had accrued in Toronto thus far with his current holdout and I have gotten the distinct impression that the fan base does not want to see him rewarded for utilizing such tactics, and to such an extreme no less. 

Based on McKenzie's comments it seems that the trades that have been so often rumored regarding Nylander are all but off the table at this point, and considering how far along in this process we are I don't think that should come as much of a surprise. I believe that if Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas had received an offer that he considered fair value for Nylander, especially one that includes the coveted defenseman he has been looking for, the deal would have been made already at this stage of the game. 

It looks like Nylander will either sign today or miss the entire 2018 - 2019 NHL regular season.

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