One website's trade proposal involving William Nylander might actually make some sense for the Leafs
Another season ending earlier than anticipated and another long summer of rumours and armchair trade proposals to help "improve" the team. Dreadful, isn't it? There are still 2 rounds of the playoffs yet to conclude, which means a couple more weeks of waiting to crown a new Stanley Cup Champion and waiting for the page to turn on this disappointing season.
The Leafs blew a golden opportunity - again - to get by an inferior 2nd round opponent in the 17th place Florida Panthers, allowing the Panthers to walk all over them in 5 games. This will undoubtedly lead to several changes within the organization, including potentially breaking up the core. While Auston Matthews and John Tavares are not going anywhere, the same cannot be said for William Nylander and/or Mitch Marner, who appear to be the two possible members of the Core 4 on the chopping block.
With Marner's cap hit being so high, there is a legitimate possibility that the Leafs won't be able to get fair value for him, which could force them to retain the Selke Trophy nominee and instead trade the much more affordable Nylander. If that ends up being the case, one hockey website proposed a deal that is not without its benefits for both sides. RussianMachineNeverBreaks proposed the idea of doing a Nylander for Tom Wilson swap with the Washington Capitals.
On the surface, this deal is very one-sided in terms of scoring. Nylander is head and shoulders above Wilson in these categories and also benefits from not being under extreme scrutiny for his physical play over the years. Meanwhile, Wilson is coming off of a disastrous season after coming back from a devastating knee injury. Following the 2022 Playoffs, Wilson needed to have a ligament in his knee totally rebuilt.
Coming back from such an injury is certainly a challenge, but Wilson still managed 13 goals and 22 points in 33 games this year with the Caps. Meanwhile, Nylander recorded a career high 40 goals and 87 points in 82 games for the Leafs. Still, there's no question who would be the more physically imposing player and who would strike more fear into the opposition.
Obviously, a deal between the Leafs and Caps centered around Nylander for Wilson wouldn't be a straight up deal. I'd imagine that Washington would need to add to the deal to get it done, so depending on what the balancing pieces ended up being, this hypothetical deal might actually favour the Leafs.
The one caveat here is that with Head of Player Safety George Parros clearly having a vendetta against the Leafs, Wilson's every move would be under extreme scrutiny, and when you accompany that with his history of fines and suspension, it could end up being more of a hindrance to the Leafs than a help.
Still, we know the Leafs are looking for a shakeup and a bit of an identity shift. There's no denying that brining in a guy like Tom Wilson would certainly alter how the Leafs are viewed and how tough they'd be to play against.
| POLL | ||
MAI 18 | 493 ANSWERS One website's trade proposal involving William Nylander might actually make some sense for the Leafs Should the Leafs actually pursue a deal surrounding Nylander for Tom Wilson + this summer? | ||
| Yes, absolutely! | 174 | 35.3 % |
| No, Wilson would be a liability in Toronto | 243 | 49.3 % |
| I'm ready for anything. We need a change. | 76 | 15.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
