Shocking team making a huge push to acquire William Nylander.

Big trouble for the Leafs.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Shocking team making a huge push to acquire William Nylander.
Jeff Chevrier/Icon SMI/Zuma

The Toronto Maple Leafs may have just seen a great deal of their negotiating power with young forward William Nylander evaporate before their very eyes. In a sudden and shocking turn of events it now seems like the Maple Leafs have some serious competition for their young player as a new team has entered the mix to make Nylander an offer.

Sportsnet's Chris Johnston is now reporting that there is a serious level of interest from at least one team in the Kontinental Hockey League when it comes to young William Nylander. When you consider that the Leafs and Nylander appear to still have a massive divide between the two of them it seems fair to suggest that Nylander will have to, at the very least, at least seriously consider the offers that are being put on the table by organization within the KHL.

According to Johnston's report there is one organization in particular that has expressed strong interest in Nylander and that is KHL club Salavat Yulaev based in Ufa.  Johnston has not disclosed what kind of money has been put on the table by Slavat Yulagev at this time but, when you consider the fact that singing a KHL contract would effectively lock him out of this current NHL season, I would have to imagine that it is pretty huge money to even get Nylander to consider it. Make no mistake about though it does seem like Nylander is in fact considering the offer and there may even be interest on his part to really stick to it the Leafs for hard balling him during these current negotiations. 

From Johnston's report:

Elsewhere on the Nylander front, there have been rumblings out of Europe in the last 48 hours that Willy is thinking about Ufa 

That is of course a very troubling sign for the Toronto Maple Leafs as they would not only lose Nylander for a full season in this scenario but would also likely irreparably damage their relationship with the player in the process. Additionally it seems fair to suggest that short of an outstanding season in the KHL with Ufa, Nylander's value would likely dip considerably given the year away from NHL action. 

This is certainly not an eviable position to be in if you're general manager Kyle Dubas.

Source: