William Nylander's New Contract Changes Everything for Mitch Marner

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Graham Montgomery
January 7, 2024 (9:16 PM)

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The Toronto Maple Leafs capped off their California road trip with a convincing 4-1 victory over the dreadful San Jose Sharks last night. However, the victory was overshadowed by reports that William Nylander could be signing an eight-year contract extension with the Leafs as early as tomorrow.

NHL Insider Reports Nylander To Sign Extension With Leafs Imminently

Elliotte Friedman had the story, saying that Nylander's deal could be finalized as early as Monday, January 8th. This has been coming for some time now but it seems that Leafs fans will finally be able to relax soon as both sides seem to be nearing a conclusion to this saga.

Elliotte Friedman reports that William Nylander's extension could be done as early as Monday, with an AAV of around $11.5 million for 8 years 👀

Fittingly, Nylander had a huge game against the Sharks as he potted two goals and an assist in the 4-1 win.

Nylander's Contract Extension Has Implications For Marner Deal

The new contract does carry significant implications on the rest of the Leafs roster though. For one, he will be making more than Mitch Marner next season for the first time in his career. This could mean Marner will get a similar kind of raise on his extension, should the Leafs chose to re-sign the winger.

Marner Currently makes 10.9 million dollars against the cap. For that, the Leafs have gotten 15 goals and 40 points in 37 games this year, putting him on pace for around 90 points. He opened the scoring for the Leafs last night with a 5-3 powerplay goal, the Leaf's second of the season.

With Auston Matthews making over 13 million dollars against the cap starting next season and Nylander reportedly getting 11.5, that could mean Marner will have to take a smaller raise to stay with the team. Captain John Tavares is on an expiring contract next year as well, but he is unlikely to get a raise on his current deal assuming he re-signs with the team due to his age. That being said, the team has consistently struggled to find depth scoring and another huge raise to a core player could solidify that trend going into the future.

As seen on Marner asked point blank about Nylander rumours and his response was perfect