Rumor: Matthews and Marner are asking for gigantic contracts.

All of the focus right now when it comes to the Toronto Maple Leafs is on young restricted free agent William Nylander, that is true regardless of if it comes from an organizational standpoint, from the fan base or even from the media. That being said though there are two other huge names on the Maple Leafs roster that realistically need new deals of their own and they may prove to be even more difficult than the deal for Nylander.

We've all heard reports by now that Nylander's camp could be seeking as much as $8 million per season in average annual value on his next deal, a number that I do not believe the Leafs should seriously consider at this stage of his career. Given the fact that no deal has yet materialized however it's safe to say that the Nylander camp is standing firm and may even be prepared to continuing doing so well into this upcoming season.

 That's all well and good but there are two other key members of Toronto's young group of forwards who will need a contract by the end of the 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season and if we're all being honest, they will dictate what happens with Nylander at the end of the day. Toronto's core group of young forwards has often been viewed as a trio of talented players, the aforementioned Nylander, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews, but the reality of the situation is the two key players in that group are Marner and Matthews. 

Signing both Marner and Matthews to a contract extension at this time is a far more important piece of business in the grand scheme of things and Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas is more than intelligent enough to know that. How much those two deals will cost the Leafs is likely to have a direct impact on what the Maple Leafs have left to give to Nylander, and although Nylander needs a contract immediately he likely will be stuck playing second, or rather third, fiddle.

So how much could Matthews and Marner cost the Leafs in the long run? Well a new report from Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star paints a pretty dark picture of just how much money the two young men could command. From the Star(emphasis our own):

Matthews, Marner and defenceman Jake Gardiner are up for contract renewals. Gardiner will be an unrestricted free agent next summer; Matthews and Marner — like Nylander today — will be restricted free agents. Some believe Matthews could command up to $13 million annually and Marner $10 million, depending on how this season goes.

Dubas has been on record numerous times already stating that the negotiations between the Leafs and the Matthews and Marner camps respectively continue to be ongoing. This is purely speculation on my part but given those two numbers cited by McGran I strongly suspect that Dubas may need to get those two deals finalized before coming to a conclusion on the Nylander contract. 

Having $23 million invested in just two forwards would undoubtedly make the Nylander contract, and any other future additions from the Leafs considerably more difficult.