Chad, what's your gut feeling on the Nylander situation? He's a UFA next year, correct? Does signing Bertuzzi, even for one year, have any impact on it?
Will the Leafs pay him, especially with Matthews coming due next year as well.?
So, to come back on this. Word is he wants somewhere well north of $9M; Leafs want him in the low 8s. Bear in mind that any "raise" doesn't kick in until next season ... he's still locked in at $6.9M for this year, so all of the one-year contracts they signed (Bertuzzi, Domi, Klingberg) don't have any impact. There's so many variables at play though - how much is the cap going to go up for '24/'25? How much of a raise is Matthews going to get? What kind of term are they going to be able to sign Nylander for if they can extend him? Does the team extend Matthews first, then see how much cap space they have left for Willie? The real impacts for this year is whether they can unload Matt Murray's $4.8M cap hit? And, how much of a raise is Samsonov going to get (his arbitration hearing is Friday)?
Some might argue that Nylander at $6.9M was a "team friendly" price for the past few years, so it's expected that he's going to hold firm to 'get paid'. Marner is still $4M higher than Nylander. The longer they go into the season with him unsigned, the greater the likelihood that it ends up being a situation just like Gaudreau in Calgary last summer - they lost him to free agency with nothing to show for it. I don't see how the team would/could unload him at the trade deadline - at a minimum the team would keep him around as an own-rental (so to speak), even if they didn't feel they could re-sign him next summer.
Bottom line ... Matthews is non-negotiable; the team *will* absolutely re-sign him, and he'll be the highest paid player in the league when the extension is signed. Whether that's this summer, part way thru the season, or next June ... doesn't really matter. The question is whether or not the team feels they can/should extend Nylander before knowing what the Matthews price tag (and term) is going to be.
My gut says they have to move him, and end up with a net gain of at least $4M in cap space. So the return is not going to be all that great. But, it's the bed the organization has made for themselves.