Dubas says stalled Nylander deal won't set any marketplace records
Kyle Dubas and the Toronto Maple Leafs won't be setting a new bar to sign restricted free agent William Nylander.
With day two of Leafs training camp underway, the Swedish forward is yet to sign a new contract, and the status of negotiations between him and the club is largely up in the air. Dubas, however, shed a bit of light on the situation Saturday, saying that Nylander's new deal will certainly be within the confines of the Leafs' salary cap restrictions.
"If we want to sustain success here we can't be setting any marketplace records," Dubas said, according to Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star.
"Sometimes players might not like it very much, but I'm sure they'd rather win than be on a team that can't."
Shortly after signing free agent John Tavares to a seven-year, $77 million deal, Dubas was asked how he plans to manage the next contracts of Toronto's group of young stars. He responded by saying "we can, and we will" retain Nylander, Mitch Marner, and Auston Matthews long-term.
Nylander has posted back-to-back 61-point efforts in the first two full seasons of his career. His value has been compared to that of Nikolaj Ehlers of the Winnipeg Jets and David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins.
Both men signed big-money extensions in September 2017, with the former agreeing to a seven-year, $42-million deal, and the latter inking a six-year, $40-million pact.
The Maple Leafs have an estimated $13.3 million in available cap space for 2018-19, according to Cap Friendly.