Shanahan calls out Nylander over contract demands

Don’t look now but it’s the opening day of the 2018-19 NHL season and one of the league’s brightest young stars is still without a contract. 

The 22 year old Swedish forward’s three year, entry level contract expired on June 30th, 2018 and it would appear that he and the Leafs have done little negotiating this offseason. Despite some chatter about a potential long-term deal, not much has been reported on Nylander’s negotiations, leaving many Leafs fans wondering just what the hold up is…

With 42 goals and 80 assists through his first 163 NHL games, Nylander has done more than enough to warrant a long-term commitment, but for whatever reason the two sides have not been able to come to an agreement on dollars. Given his production and his draft pedigree Nylander has put himself in the conversation with other young snipers like David Pastrnak and Leon Draisaitl … but it appears that the Leafs don’t see it that way.

In fact, Leafs president Brendan Shanahan came out today and confirmed that the team expects players to take less in order to keep the group together and grow into a championship calibre team. Check out some of these quotes from Shanahan’s interview with Sportsnet earlier today in which he spoke about Nylander and the contentious contract negotiations between the player and the team:

“We want players that want to be Maple Leafs and this might not be for everyone…”

“To embrace the city of Toronto, you have to WANT to be a Toronto Maple Leaf and we are lucky that we have a lot of players that seem to embrace that responsibility.”

“We’re working hard toward William… we want William to be a part of this, but obviously this is something that William has to go through.”

“It’s not for everyone and we’re not for everyone, but we feel that with the players we currently have, while it’s not going to be easy, we have great confidence that they have bought into this program and being a part of the Toronto Maple Leafs.”

Translate: get your act together, kid.

If Nylander doesn’t get the message from Shanahan’s words today… well let’s just say he may be sitting out for awhile.