TORONTO — When you keep on doling out gobs of money this hefty to your core athletes, you hope for superhuman performance as payback.
So, it seems fitting, then, that upon signing off on the richest player contract in Toronto Maple Leafs‘ history, Brad Treliving wasn’t all dinner’s-on-you jokes and back-slaps with William Nylander. The GM had a serious chat with his smooth-skating Swede Monday morning, invoking Uncle Ben’s message to a young Peter Parker (aka, Spider-Man).
With great power comes great responsibility.
Yes, the general manager attached a memo to the $92-million cheque he wrote from the MLSE account, a grand sum that will be front-loaded heavily and spread over the eight seasons after this one.
“To whom much is given, much is expected,” Treliving cautioned. “To me, he can take another step in his leadership. When you see Willy competing and dug in, playing a 200-foot game like our top guys do, the rest of the team follows.
“When he’s at his best, there’s very few better than him in the league.”
After winning but one playoff series in his first eight campaigns in Toronto, Nylander has essentially guaranteed himself nine more springs to lift a Stanley Cup while wearing blue and white.
Monday’s monstrous deal — which coach Sheldon Keefe called “the league’s worst-kept secret” — runs through the 2031-32 season, taking Nylander to age 36. It features a full no-movement clause, which kicks in immediately, and $69 million worth of signing bonuses ($42 million of those bonuses will be dished out in the contract’s first four years). Guaranteed dollars and essentially buyout-proof by its structure.
Nylander’s windfall nudges his AAV ahead of 61-goal-scoring pal David Pastrnak ($11.25 million) and — depending how negotiations go for pending free agents like Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson and Florida’s Sam Reinhart — could well give Toronto four of the NHL’s top 10 highest cap hits in 2024-25, when teammate Auston Matthews assumes pole position and Mitch Marner and John Tavares (UFA 2025) enter their own contract campaigns.
All four of those players are forwards.
“Listen, it’s a big contract. It’s a lot of money. I don’t think there was ever a time where we felt we weren’t going to get to the finish line,” Treliving said.
“The player ultimately wanted to be here. We wanted the player. So, you find a way.”
If there was ever a seed of doubt that this extension would not come to fruition, Nylander says, it was over the summer, when former GM Kyle Dubas was fired and Treliving hopped aboard a moving train, his top two priorities being to re-sign two superstars in their prime with all the leverage.
“I didn’t know what was gonna happen with the new management and stuff, what their thoughts were. That might’ve been maybe the only time [I wasn’t sure the deal would get done]. But, I mean, for my own choice, I wanted to be here,” Nylander said.
“I didn’t do this by myself. I mean, thanks to teammates and coaching staff, management, everybody that has believed in me, and especially the City of Toronto, too, All the Leafs fans and everything for all their support.”
Nylander’s Toronto love is real, but squint till you’re blind and you won’t locate a “hometown” discount here. This was business.
From the point-producing player’s perspective, the richest deal in club history was “a really smooth process from start to finish”; Nylander instructed his agent, Lewis Gross, to do the heavy lifting and only involve him once something major had shifted in talks. (Our read: Once the Leafs bent.)
From Treliving’s point of view, however, this was a grind of a negotiation that danced forward and stumbled backward multiple times over the past six months.
If Sylvester Stallone and Michael Cera were to arm-wrestle, their perspectives of the event might vary.
Nylander still held the power — and, perhaps more importantly, the stomach — to wait if the team didn’t hit his number, 92, which was coincidentally his father, Michael’s, sweater number.
“Had to time to spare,” Nylander smiled, when asked to compare this negotiation to his previous one. “It wasn’t to the wire.”
That the 27-year-old is delivering on his goal to dominate on the ice, now on pace for a team- and career-high 120 points, only added to his influence.
“I don’t know if I’ve met anyone that quite has the confidence like him. I mean that in a very positive way,” friend and captain Tavares said.
“Sometimes a lot of guys aren’t always having their best nights or fighting the puck. And as the game goes on, you just don’t feel like you have it tonight. I think every time he goes out there, he truly believes that the next play he’s going to make is going to be a great one and always wants to play on the stick and always wants to be a difference-maker. Really, a true big game-breaker in our league.”
Added Morgan Rielly: “He let his play do the talking.”
To debate whether Treliving could’ve signed Nylander for, say, a $10.5-million AAV in July or August, or to wonder what Marner’s next ask will be, is to be focused on the trees instead of the forest.
The question shouldn’t be whether Nylander is worth a few hundred thousand less.
The question should be: Can the Maple Leafs win a championship by continuing to bet so heavily on dynamic offensive talent and skimp and scrim on defence, trusted bottom-six forwards, and goaltending?
That has been Brendan Shanahan’s model from the beginning, and the Nylander contract confirms that will be the way in the immediate future.
“Willy’s earned it,” Keefe said. “In my time in the NHL, he’s spoken a lot about being a top player in the league and being relied upon in all situations for our team. That’s been his ambition. In some cases, his actions or his consistency hasn’t met those ambitions and we’ve had to push him and work through that.”
“Pretty excited to coach this version of Willy that he’s evolved into over the years.”
This version is amazing, like Spider-Man.
But splashy individuals who do the incredible has never been an issue for these Maple Leafs. It’s filling in the rest of cast, having enough budget to complete the story, that has — and will continue to be — the challenge.
“I know how hard it is to get talent,” Treliving said. “Every contract, every dollar matters because we live in a cap world.
“So, you folks can all debate it — and I’m sure it will be hotly debated — but at the end of the day, when you can get a top player signed, it’s a good day.”
One-Timers: Winger Nick Robertson is expected to be healthy-scratched for a third consecutive game Tuesday against the Sharks, as Keefe sticks with a winning lineup. … Goalie Martin Jones, named the NHL’s Second Star of the Week, gets his fifth straight start Tuesday. … Winger Ryan Reaves has recovered from his kneecap injury suffered Dec. 14 but continues to skate as an extra. Same goes for depth defencemen Conor Timmins and William Lagesson. … Treliving says Ilya Samsonov had a “a good week” putting in work behind the scenes but did not reveal the team’s next step for the goalie.
Maple Leafs projected lines Tuesday vs. San Jose
Knies – Matthews – Marner
Bertuzzi – Tavares – Nylander
Holmberg – Domi – Järnkrok
McMann – Kämpf – Gregor
Rielly – Brodie
Benoit – McCabe
Giordano – Liljegren
Jones starts
Hildeby
