Toronto Maple Leafs: William Nylander Contract Enters Worrisome Territory

It’s officially time to start being concerned about the contract talks between William Nylander and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The William Nylander contract situation has entered a worrisome territory for the Toronto Maple Leafs and their impact winger.

The puck will drop on the 2018-19 season in roughly a week. With each passing day, it appears more likely Nylander will not be on the ice for Opening Night. Although fellow restricted free agents Josh Morrissey, Darnell Nurse, Miles Wood, and Shea Theodore have signed lately, all seems to be quiet with contract negotiations between Nylander and the Maple Leafs.

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The result of beginning the year without him has been grossly underrated due to the signing of John Tavares. Tavares’ arrival has created a sunshine-and-rainbows atmosphere around Toronto. The hole created by Nylander’s absence won’t be noticed until the games start to matter.

The Maple Leafs had the second-best power play in the league a year ago, capitalizing on the man-advantage 25 percent of the time. Only the firepower of the Pittsburgh Penguins was better than Toronto. With Tavares’ arrival, it’s expected the Maple Leafs will have one of the best powerplays again this season.

However, Toronto lost James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak in the offseason, two key members of their top powerplay unit. The duo combined for 33 power play points last season. Replacing the duo with Tavares seems like an easy transition. But if Nylander is also not available, suddenly the Maple Leafs’ greatest weapon on their powerplay becomes significantly weaker.

Nylander will no doubt be on the team’s top powerplay unit this season whenever he does sign. However, the longer he holds out the less dangerous Toronto’s offense is. Currently, head coach Mike Babcock has been experimenting with his top powerplay unit being Tavares, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Nazem Kadri, and Morgan Rielly.

The issue with this group of five players is it places Toronto’s top three centers all on the same unit. This not only weakens the second powerplay unit who won’t have a true center, it also weakens the team’s options once the power play has ended.

For example, say the Maple Leafs are playing Pittsburgh, the Penguins manage to kill off their penalty and now don’t have to worry about Matthews, Tavares, or Kadri since they were all on the ice together. This would leave a player like Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin licking their chops knowing the only option remaining for the Maple Leafs is a fourth line center.

The one player that solves this problem is Nylander who would likely replace Kadri on the first powerplay unit, bumping him down to the second unit. This gives the second unit a true center and 30-goal scorer, allowing the team to spread the depth. It also likely allows Kadri’s line to be the first line out on the ice any time the top powerplay unit is successful.

Along with the power play and its trickledown effect throughout the lineup, Nylander’s absence weakens Toronto’s top-six forwards as he’s currently been replaced by Tyler Ennis on a line with Matthews and Patrick Marleau. Although Ennis has shown flashes of his offensive skills in the preseason, he’s also been pushed off the puck easily and looks more like a bottom-six depth forward.

Ennis has also been injury prone and hasn’t scored 20 goals since the 2015-16 season. In fact, as a result of injuries, Ennis has only combined to score 16 goals and 46 points in his last three seasons. Nylander has recorded 61 points in each of the past two seasons.

Starting the year without Nylander is potentially playing with fire for the Maple Leafs. Even if he inks a new deal after just missing a regular season game or two, once he returns there’s no telling how much time he’d need to adjust to game speed and recreate his chemistry with Matthews. It might be as easy as flipping a switch, it might take Nylander several games to re-establish his confidence and prove worthy of his new contract.

Regardless of when Nylander does sign, it’s time for Maple Leaf fans to start to worry not only about when the club’s top-six winger will return but how he’ll perform once he does and if it might impact those around him as well.