Former NHLer sends very clear message to William Nylander following the Matthews extension
Now that Auston Matthews has signed and will be a Leaf for at least the next five years, all the attention turns to William Nylander once again. Nylander revealed on Wednesday that there haven't been many talks recently between he and the Leafs on his extension but that he would love to get something done. For them to get something done though, it would require one or both sides to make some concessions with the biggest being Nylander coming down from his reported $10M+ per season ask.
Yesterday on TSN's OverDrive, while the guys were discussing Matthews' extension, Jamie McLennan commented on how this affects Nylander's new deal and he didn't mince words.
"If I'm William Nylander, take Auston Matthews off the table. There's gonna be a lot of people going 'Matthews makes $13.25M how can Nylander make $5M less'? Well, he's not Auston Matthews. Matthews is in a different stratosphere. Nylander has to be comparing himself more to Mitch Marner and other players around the league. Marner is a 100 point player, Nylander is not a 100 point player. There are comparables on both sides where they would like to get to, it's just unfortunate because we all play the comparison game and I guarantee you there's people out there going Matthews is not $5M better than Nylander. Take Nylander and Matthews comparison off the table. They're not [comparable]. Matthews has scored 60 and won a Hart Trophy and he's known as one of the top 5 players, maybe higher, on the planet and Nylander's not that."
McLennan has a very valid point in terms of Nylander and his extension, particularly if you look at the fact that another number one center in Sebastian Aho just signed for $9.75M per season over 8 years. Nylander is not a center, not a top-5 or top-10 player in the league and is not, at this point, a 100-point player. Can he be a 100-point player? Quite possibly, but he's still not a 200 foot player. He needs to be more realistic in what his value is. It's certainly not anywhere close to that of Auston Matthews.
| POLL | ||
AOUT 24 | 3530 ANSWERS Former NHLer sends very clear message to William Nylander following the Matthews extension With Matthews getting $13.25M, do you think Nylander deserves more than $10M? | ||
| Not even close | 3006 | 85.2 % |
| Yes, he probably does | 524 | 14.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
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