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Maple Leafs been reportedly trying to trade Nylander for the past 2 years!
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Maple Leafs been reportedly trying to trade Nylander for the past 2 years!

Is this summer the right time?

HockeyFeed

HockeyFeed

Another first-round exit for the Toronto Maple Leafs, another round of trade rumours concerning forward William Nylander. The primary subject is used to it by now as he didn’t shy away from mentioning it earlier this week in his end of season press conference.

“My summer will be the same,” Nylander said Tuesday about his future with the team. “That’s all I’ve heard since I’ve been here.”

However, it feels like the speculations will get louder this summer, especially with new chatter coming in from all sides: Stephane Waite, former Canadiens goalie coach and now pundit on a podcast in Montreal, revealed how the Maple Leafs have reportedly been trying to trade Nylander for the past two years. This is how he explained it, translated from French, in the last edition of the podcast:

“As for Nylander, by the way, he’s been on the market for two years! They haven’t been able to get rid of him for two years. They will have to be very imaginative to succeed in getting rid of him!”

That’s a well-known fact that the winger has been constantly placed on the trade block by fans since signing that six-year contract back in 2018, but it remains surprising that the Leafs would have attempted so many times to move him without success.

Nylander scored 34 goals this season for the Leafs, and could get loads of interest on the market, but Toronto might not be in that much of a hurry to trade him. After all, he carries the more affordable contract among their foursome of top forwards plus he elevated his play in the postseason. Despite the Maple Leafs failing - again - to move on to the second round.

The Maple Leafs are still figuring things out on the back end and in between the pipes : could Nylander be used as part of a deal to get a big name on the blue line, let’s say Jakob Chychrun of the Arizona Coyotes, in Toronto?

Change is inevitable for the Maple Leafs, and if chatter is true that they’ve been trying to move Nylander for two years, this time might be the right one.

Source: Stephane Waite