Report: Nylander puts out a message after officially signing.

Nylander makes a statement.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Report: Nylander puts out a message after officially signing.
Gerry Angus/Icon SIM/Zuma

It's finally over.

On Saturday the Toronto Maple Leafs finally reached an agreement with restricted free agent forward William Nylander after several long months of difficult, and at times what seemed liked contentious, negotiations. It appears that the Maple Leafs increased their offer just hours before the deadline and that the final offer from Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas was enough to finally break the standstill and get Nylander to come across the table and sign the contract. 

In the end according to multiple reports Nylander will earn an average annual value of $6.9 million per season on a 6 year contract with the Leafs, although there were some finer points to this new deal. The first and biggest point is the fact that Nylander's cap hit for the 2018 - 2019 NHL season will be a whopping $10.2 million due to how late in the season he is signing his current deal. Although that is a massive number it will allow him to recuperate any money that he would have lost normally by sitting out the first two months of the regular season while also keeping the cap number low for the Maple Leafs in the coming years. The fact that the Leafs can absorb that number now while dropping all the way back down to $6.9 million against the cap next season is a great fit for Nylander obviously but is also a sign of very wise planning on the part of Dubas and the rest of Maple Leafs management. 

Although we now know that the contract has been signed and we now know the specific details of that contract the one thing that we had not heard up until this point was anything out of the William Nylander camp. I have no doubt that the Leafs will welcome him back with open arms but things may be a little more contentious with the very passionate Maple Leafs fan base. In spite of what must be some concerns in that regard on his part Nylander took to social media on Saturday and had a little message to share with fans. 

It's nothing much, but it gets straight to the point.

[pub]


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