One of the worst kept secrets in the NHL has officially been announced, as the Toronto Maple Leafs and winger William Nylander have come to terms on an 8 year extension Monday.
The deal, which will carry an AAV of $11.5M, represents the largest contract in franchise history in terms of total value, coming in at $92M. While the deal comes in under Auston Matthews’ $13.25M AAV which will kick in next year, Toronto was happy to lock up the Swedish forward through to his age 35 season.
In addition to the $69M in signing bonus money, the deal also features a full no trade clause throughout the duration of the deal.
After scoring a career high 40 goals and 87 points in 2022-23, Nylander is on pace to easily surpass those totals with 21G, 33A (54pts) in only 37 games played. Currently in the final year of a 6 year, $45M deal, the 27 year old will nearly double his earnings in 2024-25 going from $6.9M to $11.5M.
Originally drafted by the Maple Leafs 8th overall in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, Nylander has amassed 198G, and 286A (484pts) over the course of his 558 game NHL career thus far. A career spent entirely with the Maple Leafs after being called up for a 22 game stint back in 2015-16.
When his new contract kicks in, Nylander will become one of the 10 highest paid players in the league, and will join a “Big 4” in Toronto which will eat up a sizeable portion of the Leafs cap space. With Matthews set to earn $13.25M, Mitch Marner taking home $10.9M, and John Tavares earning $11M, Toronto will have $46.65M tied up in 4 forwards.
After being the subject of persistent trade rumours the last few seasons, Nylander bet on himself and turned in the most productive stretch of his NHL career, totalling 61G, and 80A (141pts) over his last 119 games played. That confidence, allowed him to cash in with new GM Brad Treliving who made it a priority upon joining the team to lock up their core assets for the foreseeable future.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will return home following a west coast road trip tomorrow to take on the San Jose Sharks in a 7pm ET matchup.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: The AHL. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.