Talk of a potential trade and even a potential offer sheet for William Nylander begin.

You knew it would come eventually, especially if things continued to drag out, and the question now is how likely is it to happen?

For months now fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs organization have been spoon fed assurances regarding the organization's three young stars by newly appointed general manager Kyle Dubas. Although support for him seemed to initially be unanimous following a blockbuster move to acquire former Islanders captain John Tavares as more and more time passes without a contract in place for young forward William Nylander more and more fans, and even some pundits, are starting to wonder if there really is a long term solution in which Nylander remains a Maple Leaf.

On Saturday night during the intermission of the preseason game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres, Sportsnet's insider Elliotte Friedman made it clear that he believes that both sides are still hopeful that they will be able to find a resolution, or at the very least that they both want the same thing.

"First of all I think the key thing is, Kyle Dubas said it tonight, they want him to be a Toronto Maple Leafs and the belief is that William Nylander wants to be a Toronto Maple Leaf."

That being said though during the very same segment he also revealed that Nylander is pushing for the kind of money that Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl got on his deal, and with both Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews also needing new deals within the next year it seems extremely unlikely that the Leafs would ever agree to give him that much.

"I think the reason Nylander is looking at the Draisaitl number or closer to it, is because Draisaitl went there because he knew that Connor McDavid was gonna enter the stratosphere at $12.5 million." 

It seems more and more likely that the Leafs may have to seriously consider the possibility of a future without Nylander on the roster and they may even have to be concerned about the possibility of a rival team getting involved and driving up the price on Nylander. The Athletic's Sean Shapiro was asked during a recent mailbag about the possibility of an offer sheet for Nylander. Specifically a reader asked Shapiro if he felt that a team like the Dallas Stars, a team with the draft picks required to make an aggressive offer, could step in with an offer of $7 million to $8 million on an offer sheet for Nylander. 

Shapiro's response was short and to the point:

It would make sense to me, why not try it?

That was followed by another question on the Nylander subject, this time however it was regarding the possibility of a trade rather than an offer sheet. Shapiro was asked whether or not he felt the Stars could present the Maple Leafs with a significant offer, one juicy enough that it could get the Leafs to pull the trigger on a trade involving the young star forward. Once again Shapiro answered in the affirmative and indicated that he believes the Starts could in fact do so:

Not sure what’s happening with Toronto, but if Nylander is available via trade the Stars have the pieces to make a deal and could probably put together something that includes a pick, a prospect, and a roster player if needed.

The Stars missed out on both John Tavares and Erik Karlsson earlier this summer and there may be a strong desire within that organization to add a big piece to bolster their roster moving forward.