Ahead of the season, Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving made it clear that he wanted to get William Nylander signed. Nylander himself also made it clear that he was willing to negotiate in-season on the condition that he was not notified of anything unless there was a deal to be signed.
Prior to the start of the season, Nylander's reported ask was $10M+ per season and given that he has had point streaks of 17 and 12 games, I think it' safe to say Treliving should have accepted that ask when he had the chance to this summer.
Today, a report, and I use that term very loosely, given who it was written by, indicated that Nylander's agent, Lewis Gross, had received permission to speak to other teams. Apparently, per the report, Nylander is connected to a in California. No, it's not the obvious choice of the LA Kings, but rather the Anaheim Ducks, that HockeyBuzz's "Eklund" has decided to link Nylander to this time.
For the report to be even remotely accurate, it probably would have been better leaving out the part about Gross being granted permission to speak to other teams. If it were true, every Insider in hockey would have been reporting on it, including the likes of Pierre LeBrun, Elliotte Friedman and Chris Johnston, who have very reliable sources. Yes, the Ducks will have more than $30M in cap space next off-season, but they are in the midst of a rebuild and Nylander is already in his prime years and wants to win now.
In addition, Nylander has said time and time again that he loves Toronto. I believe him, but it will come down to money, as everything does, and also how Lewis Gross and Brad Treliving repair their relationship after what happened with Johnny Gaudreau in Calgary in order to get a deal done. The Leafs have lots of time to ink him to an extension, but I would suspect that if a deal isn't in place by the draft, Treliving will try to deal him the same way he did with Matthew Tkachuk in a sign-and-trade.
