Trade Proposal Involving William Nylander to the Hurricanes

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James Connelly
May 28, 2023 (3:33 PM)

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Many fans are speculating about whether William Nylander will be traded, and many are curious about what return Nylander would fetch if he were to be dealt.

Trade Proposal Involving Nylander to the Hurricanes

Although Brendan Shanahan has assured the core four they will be staying, the next Leafs GM may have a different plan that could potentially involve trading one of the core four members.

The most likely member to be moved is William Nylander, who has one year left on his contract and could depart in the off-season. With this in mind, the Leafs might trade him for a more balanced team, and an interesting proposal has surfaced.

This trade proposal has left many fans puzzled because it's unclear why both Carolina and Toronto would agree to it.

Trade Analysis

Toronto's perspective:

The Leafs are distributing their talent more evenly. There's no significant change in cap space with Skjei and Teravainen remaining. So, why would the Leafs give up Nylander, who scored 87 points last season, for Skjei and Teravainen, who combined for 75 points?

The rationale might be to bet on a Teravainen comeback year and expect Skjei to play a top-four role in Toronto, thus distributing the talent more evenly. When Teravainen is healthy, he is virtually guaranteed to score 60+ points. Pair him with Auston Matthews or Mitch Marner, and he could potentially score over 80 points.

Skjei is a mobile, two-way defenseman who has been consistently reliable throughout his time in Carolina and is an analytics favorite.

Teaming him up with a player like Timothy Liljegren could significantly boost his development and likely result in an excellent pairing.

Carolina's Perspective:

From Carolina's perspective, the trade is intriguing. They would surrender a top-four defenseman and a top-six forward for an elite first-line player who could play alongside Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov.

If Carolina were to proceed with a trade like this, they would need to be confident they could re-sign Shayne Gostisbehere and promote him to their second pairing. If they could accomplish this (or sign a UFA like Damon Severson) and recruit a free agent like Tyler Bertuzzi, they would likely be very comfortable letting go of two key roster players.

This thought-provoking mock trade could potentially aid both teams on their journey to becoming Stanley Cup Champions.