Hockey Insider - Leafs will trade one of the Core 4
TSN Hockey Insider, Chris Johnston was on Overdrive and shared the following:
Johnston believes this move to be a neccessity because of the pandemic flat cap. Mentioning it has blown up the Leafs' long-term view plans.
Looking into that statement the answer becomes pretty obvious. It definitely won't be leading goal scorer, Auston Matthews. He's not talking about Captain John Tavares, who owns a full no movement clause.
That leaves just 2 options, Mitch Marner and William Nylander. Marner seems too valuable of a piece to the Maple Leafs. He is the set up guy for Matthews, plays in all situations, and puts up over a point per game. Every Leafs' fan wishes his cap hit was 9 million instead of the $10,903,000 million he is currently on. Every dollar counts in these cap crunching times. You can't blame a guy for taking as much as he can. Marner is signed until the end of the 2024-2025 season.
Then there's William Nylander. He is 2 points away from matching his career high of 61 points in a season. He has 24 goals and 59 points in 65 games. You can see it at times with Nylander, his game breaking talent. The problem is there will be stretches where he disappears and becomes a liability defensively. His play gets him into the Dog House with his coaches. You've seen it with Mike Babcock and Sheldon Keefe during his time with the Leafs. He is signed at a cap hit of $6,962,366 until the end of the 2023-2024 season.
If Nylander is moved in the Summer it will be interesting to see what the return will be. With all the bad tendencies in his game there is a lot more good that out weighs it.
| POLL | ||
Out of the Big 4 Forwards who has the highest potential to be moved? | ||
| William Nylander | 242 | 64.5 % |
| Mitch Marner | 47 | 12.5 % |
| John Tavares | 60 | 16 % |
| Auston Matthews | 26 | 6.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
