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Atlantic Notes: Gardiner, Kotkaniemi, Abdelkader, Rask

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Even though the Toronto Maple Leafs have their hands full with the contract negotiations with William Nylander and the future negotiations with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun (subscription required) writes that the team also will likely have issues with defenseman Jake Gardiner.

The scribe writes that while Gardiner has expressed his desire to remain with Toronto long-term and general manager Kyle Dubas has met up with Gardiners’ representative, Pat Brisson, it’s likely that Gardiner will have to wait until the contracts of Nylander, Matthews and Marner are finalized, which could edge him out if those players don’t take hometown discounts. Regardless, after Nate Schmidt signed for $5.95MM AAV a few days ago, Gardiner could get quite a bit more on the open market especially with so few quality blueliners available on the free agent market next season. He might be able to command $7MM per year. However, he will likely have to take less than $6MM if he wants to remain in Toronto.

  • Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette writes that today’s game against the Boston Bruins will be the 10th game for rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi, signifiying that the team intends to burn the first year of the 18-year-old’s entry-level contract. While a few weeks ago, a move like this might have been in doubt, Kotkaniemi has shown considerable improvement over the past couple of weeks, making this move automatic for the team. He is averaging 14:04 ATOI and has four assists through his first nine games. Head coach Claude Julien compared him to Boston’s David Pastrnak at the same age. “They’re both guys who had to fill out and get stronger, but you can see the kill level,” said Julien. “With both players, you have to protect them a bit and that’s what I’ve done with K-K. It’s a little tougher when you’re on the road and you don’t get the last line change but he’s been in tough situations and he’s handled them well.”
  • Helene St. James of the Detroit Free-Press writes that one of the biggest problems to the Detroit Red Wings dismal performance through the first 10 games of the season has been the play of some of the veterans, especially the performance of Justin Abdelkader, who not only is quite offensively with one assist in 10 games, but is also struggling playing his physical brand of hockey. “You want to physically be engaged every game,” Abdelkader said. “You look for hits, and they’re definitely harder to come by in this game now. But that’s a part of my game. I’ve felt really good — had a really good summer, good training camp.”
  • In a mailbag series, NBC Sports Joe Haggerty questions whether Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask is really a No. 1 goalie, pointing out that he struggles when he is used regularly, which forced the Bruins to sign Jaroslav Halak to a $2.75MM contract. A true No. 1 goaltender wouldn’t require a team to pay that much for a backup and play 30 games for him. Add to that that Rask is known to be a slow starter and really struggles when the defense in front of him isn’t at their best, Haggerty doesn’t believe that the team currently can look at him as a top-rated goalie.

Agent Mike Liut Set To Bury The “Bridge Deal” This Off-Season

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For some time now, the landscape of NHL contracts has been changing, trending away from short and relatively inexpensive contracts for young restricted free agents. These “bridge deals” had long been used by teams to keep promising young talent on a reasonable price tag after their entry-level contract expired. While teams have been complicit in the movement away from bridge deals, players have simply begun to produce at a much higher level far sooner than in the past and, in turn, agents have demanded more term and salary than they ever had the leverage to command previously. The bridge deal is not yet extinct, but players and their representatives are having a much easier time landing expensive, long-term deals as early as possible in recent years.

While the beginning of the end for affordable youth can be traced back to superstars like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin – whose cap hits now look like bargains some years later – it is within the last few years that young players of a lesser caliber than the all-world exception have been able to land similar pacts. The architect of multiple recent deals of great length and value has been Mike Liut of Octagon Sports. A former NHLer himself, Liut is the director of Octagon’s hockey division. Forbes reports that Liut manages 22 clients and over $325MM in player salary. His efforts to eliminate the bridge deal have played no small part in that impressive total. Liut negotiated the eight-year, $60MM contract signed by the St. Louis Blues’ Vladimir Tarasenko back in 2015, when Tarasenko had less than 200 NHL games to his credit. He then put together the eight-year, $49MM contract of the Winnipeg Jets’ Mark Scheifele in 2016, before he became the point-per-game player he is today. However, the crown jewel of Liut’s collection has to be the massive eight-year, $68MM contract belonging to the Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl. Signed last year, Draisaitl’s deal carries an $8.5MM cap hit that is among the top fifteen players in the league. Yet, Liut somehow landed Draisaitl that deal after just two and half seasons, only one of which was truly impressive.

Now, Liut has a chance at a repeat performance of the Draisaitl deal not once, not twice, not even thrice, but with four different prominent players this off-season. Liut counts Patrik Laine, Mikko Rantanen, Brock Boeser, and Jake Guentzel among his clients and each of those four is set to have their entry-level contract expire this off-season. Winnipeg’s Laine has finished in the top ten in goal scoring in each of his first two seasons and was second only to Ovechkin for the league lead last year. Colorado’s Rantanen recorded 84 points in 81 games last year and currently shares the NHL lead in points and assists. Vancouver’s Boeser finished second in Calder Trophy voting last year and led the Canucks in scoring. Pittsburgh’s Guentzel is a Stanley Cup champion and a proven clutch scorer. Liut has shown an ability to bypass the bridge deal before and has an excellent chance at landing each of these players an expensive long-term deal. Other restricted free agents like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and Sebastian Aho are also certain to land similar deals. As such, in an off-season with an abnormal amount of high-profile RFA’s, each one could end up with an expensive, long-term extension. The effect, as Liut hopes, that the bridge deal dies as a result.

Latest On William Nylander, Toronto Maple Leafs

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are now three games into the 2018-19 season and though things haven’t gone smoothly to this point the team is 2-1. Outstanding early performances from Auston Matthews—who was named NHL First Star of the Week—John Tavares and Mitch Marner have provided more than enough offense, including leading them to a 7-6 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday. Those offensive performances though, impressive as they are, won’t make anyone forget about William Nylander and his ongoing contract negotiations with the team.

Nylander is still without a deal for this season and is coming up on a week of missed salary as he tries to secure his future earnings with a long-term deal. The young forward has told reporters that he has to think about his whole career, and there has been little to report between the two sides. When asked about it today on TSN radio, hockey insider Darren Dreger explained that the standoff could continue for some time:

Until they get into a real gritty type of negotiation, the stalemate isn’t going to end. One side is locked in in the low sixes, from what we understand, and the other side being Willie Nylander is still eight plus. Well that’s too wide a gap to get solved in three, four or five games. I think it might need a bit more time, unless Nylander just says ’Dad, I don’t want to hear from you for a while. Lewis Gross, you’re my agent, I need $6.4MM per year or I need this much on a bridge deal, go and get it done.’ That didn’t happen in the last day or so.

Dreger is of course referring to the reports that Nylander’s camp—which includes his father, Michael Nylander—is looking for an average annual value somewhere in the $8MM range on a long-term deal, while the Maple Leafs are more comfortable with a salary somewhere between $6-7MM. Neither side seems very interested in a bridge deal, though the possibility they come to terms on one just to get Nylander playing again does still exist.

The Maple Leafs have to tread carefully with these big contracts given the lack of cap flexibility they’ll be working with after signing Tavares to a seven-year $77MM deal this offseason, and the upcoming negotiations with both Matthews and Marner. The gap between asks for Toronto and Nylander is crucial cap space for the club going forward, and as long as they’re winning without him there is little incentive to cave to his demands. The deadline of course is December 1st, when restricted free agents must be signed by if they’re to play at all during the 2018-19 season.

Toronto will be back in action on Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars, but once again will hit the ice without one of their best forwards. While they wait for the Nylander situation to resolve itself, Kasperi Kapanen has taken up residence next to Matthews on the top line and found early chemistry with him on the weekend. There is little doubt that the team will continue to produce offensively in Nylander’s absence, but with the Boston Bruins and other Atlantic Division rivals off to solid starts the Maple Leafs would obviously rather have their full complement of players at coach Mike Babcock’s disposal.

Atlantic Notes: Marner, Matthews, Ozhiganov, Stempniak

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With the Toronto Maple Leafs enduring their drawn-out negotiations with restricted free agent William Nylander, it was suggested recently that Toronto try to negotiate deals with future restricted free agents, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, during the season to avoid similar holdouts next season.

Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston on Saturday Headlines, reported that while Marner’s camp sounds uninterested in discussing a contract extension in-season, Matthews camp is open to a deal.

“There were discussions throughout the summer with both Auston Matthews’ camp Mitch Marner’s camp with their extensions. They could’ve done that July 1, but some of those discussions are off,” Johnston said. “Mitch Marner and his camp have called a moratorium on talks throughout the season. They don’t want to see that distraction. I get the sense that Auston Matthews would be willing to work on his extension throughout this season.”

Matthews would be in line for a major contract pay raise as he is likely looking for pay that may even exceed the $11MM that Tavares received this summer. The 21-year-old posted 40 goals in his rookie campaign. That number dropped a little last year when he tallied 34 goals, but Matthews also missed 20 games due to injury last season.

Marner, on the other hand, hopes to get similar money to that of Matthews and The Athletic’s James Mirtle (subscription required) believes that Marner is ready to take his game to another level and believes he will easily manage to average a point-per-game after impressing in Saturday evening’s game against Ottawa. If he has an 80-point season, Marner will have posted 210 points in his three entry-level seasons, which the scribe compares to numbers of Jack Eichel, who signed an eight-year, $80MM ($10MM AAV) deal a year ago. That could prove to be quite costly for the Maple Leafs as well.

  • In a competitive defensive training camp battle, the Toronto Maple Leafs determined that defenseman Igor Ozhiganov was a keeper earlier than most. However, what does Toronto have in the 25-year-old defender who came over from the KHL this summer. The Athletic’s Ian Tulloch (subscription required) breaks down the play of the 6-foot-2 defender, who moves the puck extremely well, although there remain questions on his defense. While many KHL imports have struggled with moving the puck, Ozhiganov has had quite a bit of success so far, albeit in limited time, giving hope that he could develop into a solid blueliner. However, he does have Justin Holl breathing down his neck as a potential replacement.
  • NBC Sports’ Joe Haggerty, in a mailbag piece, writes that Lee Stempniak, who signed a PTO with the Boston Bruins, continues to remain with the team hoping for a chance to work his way into the team’s lineup. The scribe writes that if youngsters Ryan Donato or Danton Heinen fail to impress in their top-six auditions, the team is keeping Stempniak around as insurance. The 35-year-old, who played 37 games for Carolina last season, said that he would prefer to stay in Boston with his family and will continue to practice with the team for now.

Atlantic Notes: Cooper, Nylander, Kotkaniemi, Kronwall, O’Brien

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Despite the fact that Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper is in the final year of his contract, often a bad sign if a team hasn’t extended him, that isn’t the case here. Cooper and new general manager Julien BriseBois have a long history together as BriseBois was the one who originally hired Cooper back in 2010 as the head coach of their AHL franchise when BriseBois was the assistant general manager.

The Athletic’s Joe Smith (subscription required) documents their long history together and writes that even though negotiations haven’t started, BriseBois and Cooper aren’t worried about it at all, considering the trust and bond the two share together.

“I don’t see anyone else I’d want to work with right now,” BriseBois said, who hoisted a Calder Cup trophy with Cooper seven years ago. “The people who were there with you, you never forget that.”

  • Damien Cox of The Star writes that while the Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t done anything wrong when it comes to the contract situation with holdout William Nylander, the team does need to think about how it intends to manage their next two major contract discussions when they must tangle with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. While Nylander is rumored to be asking for $8MM plus in his next deal, both Matthews and Marner could ask for quite a bit more. With the team’s significant cap issues in front of them, the scribe writes the team would be well advised to avoid a similar situation next season by trying to lock those two youngsters up during the season.
  • Montreal Canadiens’ centers have already begun training their newest addition in Jesperi Kotkaniemi by working separately after practice with him on faceoffs on Friday. According to The Athletic’s Marc Antoine Godin (subscription required), Tomas Plekanec, Mathew Peca, Andrew Shaw and Phillip Danault got together and helped teach the 18-year-old some tips and tricks on taking faceoffs with the hopes that the youngster improves his game as quickly as possible.
  • The Detroit Red Wings will be without Niklas Kronwall and Jonathan Ericsson for their two-game road-trip, according to the Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James. Both defensemen have been on injured reserve and still are not ready to return to action.
  • While not on the Ottawa Senators NHL roster, Matt Tidcombe of the Belleville Senators website reports that team lost forward Jim O’Brien for four to six months after the 29-year-old forward underwent surgery on a severed tendon in his right leg in an AHL preseason game. O’Brien played 10 games for Ottawa last year.

Latest On William Nylander, Toronto Maple Leafs

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While the Toronto Maple Leafs get their season started against the Montreal Canadiens tonight, there is one player conspicuously missing from the lineup. That’s William Nylander, who is still without a contract and now missing regular season games as he holds out for a lucrative long-term deal. The Maple Leafs are moving forward without Nylander on the wing of Auston Matthews, but certainly don’t want to wait very long for one of their young stars to re-enter the lineup.

Still, the Maple Leafs know they can’t give in to demands and pay Nylander an exceptional amount of money. Toronto will soon be faced with a very real cap crunch as Matthews and fellow star forward Mitch Marner finish their own entry-level contracts this season, and with John Tavares already locked up for $11MM per season there isn’t a ton of money to go around. It’s Tavares that the team hopes its young forwards take a lesson from according to President and Alternate Governor Brendan Shanahan, who told reporters today including Kristen Shilton of TSN that the club expects their players to want to win hockey games more than earn the absolute most money possible. That’s what Tavares did this summer according to Shanahan, and also what he believes his Stanley Cup-winning Detroit Red Wings teams did when he was still on the ice.

Tavares did indeed leave money on the table to come to Toronto, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports in his excellent recent piece detailing the offseason signing. Friedman writes that the San Jose Sharks were rumored to be willing to offer $13.5MM per season, while the New York Islanders basically had a blank check waiting for Tavares, one that would have been filled out in “McDavid territory.”

While that may have been Shanahan just sharing some honest feelings with the media as he approached the season opener, it also seems as though it is a bit of a negotiation tactic with his unsigned star. The Maple Leafs are forging on ahead without Nylander at the moment, and aren’t willing to put themselves in a tough spot financially by catering to whatever the player is asking for. It’s a tough stance for Toronto fans to appreciate, but it might end up saving them in the end if they plan on keeping their young core together long-term.

East Notes: Marner, Murray, Broadhurst, Kotkaniemi

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While the Maple Leafs have been focusing on getting RFA winger William Nylander locked up, they have held recent extension talks for winger Mitch Marner, agent Darren Ferris acknowledged in an interview on TSN 1050 (audio link):

“We’ve had some very productive discussions so far and if nothing’s done by the start of the season, then we’ll wait until next summer and we’ll get back at it again.”

Ferris added that he hasn’t set a firm deadline of the start of the season to get a deal done but indicated that it would be their preference to wait.  Marner has been quite productive over his first two NHL seasons with 130 points in 159 regular games while playing at a point-per-game mark in the playoffs.  Ken Campbell of The Hockey News was the latest to suggest that a $10MM per year contract may be needed and it’s hard to imagine the Maple Leafs being prepared to commit to that type of deal over the next few days.

More from the East:

  • Columbus is already down one regular blueliner in Seth Jones and now they will be missing a second to start the season. Brian Hedger of the Blue Jackets’ team site notes that blueliner Ryan Murray is expected to miss the next couple of weeks due to a soft-tissue groin injury.  The 25-year-old has dealt with injury issues in four of his five NHL seasons and it could very well become five out of six.  Meanwhile, forward Alex Broadhurst is dealing with an undisclosed injury that is preventing him from being placed on waivers to be sent to Cleveland of the AHL.
  • The Canadiens have started internal discussions about what to do with top pick Jesperi Kotkaniemi to start the season, notes Postmedia’s Stu Cowan. The third-overall pick has played well in the preseason but spent most of last year on the left wing; the Canadiens view him as a center but it’s difficult to ask him to play that position in the NHL right away.  Julien has already indicated his preference is to have the 18-year-old break camp with the big club but management may prefer to start him at either the AHL level or back in Finland (he has a European Assignment Clause he can choose to trigger).  Kotkaniemi can play in nine games before officially burning the first year of his entry-level deal.

Toronto’s Dubas Isn’t Budging On Contract Standoff With William Nylander

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With still a number of restricted free agents around the league opting not to attend training camp, many people find themselves looking at the most prominent of them in Toronto Maple Leafs’ William Nylander, who still hasn’t come to an agreement with Toronto and rumor have the two sides being far apart. The 22-year-old winger, who was the eighth-overall selection back in 2014, has put up two solid 20-goal, 60-point campaigns and could be ready for a breakout season.

Regardless, negotiations seem to be at a standstill. Maple Leafs’ general manager Kyle Dubas did a Q&A with students from his alma mater, Brock University this morning and had an interesting response when asked when the team was going to sign Nylander.

“As soon as possible,” said Dubas. “If we want to sustain success here we can’t be setting any marketplace records.”

According to Kevin McGran of the Star, Dubas made it clear that the team wasn’t budging on its offer to Nylander, who is rumored to be seeking $8MM per season, while the Maple Leafs are offering around $6.5MM. Dubas also said he isn’t worried if Nylander misses some of training camp. Due to all its salary cap issues over the next several years, Dubas has to make sure not to overpay any one player, considering he still has to sign Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner to extensions as well.

While there is no confirmation of the $8MM salary demand from Nylander, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, in his most recent 31 Thoughts column, writes that he believes that Nylander is asking for Leon Draisaitl money at $8.5MM per season and is likely accurate for several reasons. He writes that agents are always high, but they are using the Draisaitl comparison since Draisaitl posted 129 points in his first two seasons, while Nylander has posted 122. Throw in the fact that Connor McDavid new contract last season pushed Draisaitl’s pricetag up, the same is likely to happen as Nylander will want to be near the salaries that Matthews and Marner will eventually get (not to mention the money that Tavares got this offseason).

Dubas and the Maple Leafs are hoping that Nylander will take a little less money being on a deep, dominant playoff team, something that other players have already done such as Tavares, Nazem Kadri and Morgan Rielly already have.

Maple Leafs Will Not Name A Captain This Off-Season

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The Toronto Maple Leafs did not have a captain last season and judging by the comments of new GM Kyle Dubas, they may not have one this season either. In an interview with TSN’s Bob McKenzie, Dubas stated for a fact that the team would not name a captain prior to the beginning of the season and would again go without one until Dubas, Brendan Shanahan, and the coaching staff can better evaluate their options.

I want to get into a day-to-day with these people and see who is best suited to handle [the captaincy]… if we do determine that we need somebody to handle that. If we feel we have a void in leadership because we don’t have a formal captain, then that is something that I think we can address… We need to evaluate it as the season evolves and as we go through the ups and downs of a season and see how the players each individually handle the daily process of a season.”

Dubas seems hesitant to make any sort of decision until he has a complete read of the locker room and until a time that he feels naming a captain is necessary. He calls the title for a historic club like the Maple Leafs “an honor” and wants to make sure that the correct person is named. Dubas feels that being patient with naming a captain will be the right move and eliminates the risk of any future drama surrounding the team’s leadership.

Dubas specifically mentions Patrick Marleau, Ron Hainsey, and free agency prize John Tavares as top candidates if and when a decision is made. The latter was the captain of the New York Islanders before signing in Toronto and some speculated that the commitment made by the team to Tavares could indicate that he would be in line for the same role. Meanwhile, Dubas singled out Marleau as a player who stepped up as a locker room leader for the team last year. While the team lost regular alternates in Tyler Bozak and Leo Komarov this off-season, Marleau, Hainsey, and Nazem Kadri also wore the “A” occasionally last season. As for the young core of the team, Dubas says that he hopes William Nylander, Morgan Rielly – a frequent alternate the past few years, Jake Gardiner, Auston Matthews, and Mitch Marner continue to grow in their leadership abilities, but stopped short of calling any of them a prime candidate at this point. With Nylander still unsigned and both Gardiner and Hainsey on expiring contracts, it would seem that either Marleau or Tavares would be the favorite for the role, with Rielly, Matthews, and Marner as possibilities. However, Dubas will not rush the decision and the Leafs may even go another whole season without a formal captain.

Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner Unlikely To Sign Extensions Before Season

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While all eyes around the Toronto Maple Leafs right now are on William Nylander and his ongoing contract negotiations, there is also now the possibility of long-term extensions for Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Both star forwards have been eligible for an extension since July 1st, but haven’t been in the spotlight much after the team signed John Tavares in free agency and still has not reached an agreement with Nylander for the upcoming season. Now, while sitting down with Bob McKenzie of TSN, Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas admitted that those extensions may not get done before the season.

I wouldn’t say it’s all too likely. We’ve had good discussions with all of them, with both Mitch and Auston and their people. These are the types of things that because there’s no real immediacy to it—they both know they have another year on their contract, everyone’s excited for the season—it’s been a very patient process on all parts. That’s more from the team that it is from the players. We believe that if a player is going to commit that long to a team on a long-term agreement, that we want them to be fully comfortable and aware of what they’re getting into. 

Dubas went on to explain how his team would always be willing to negotiate in-season, but understands if the player doesn’t want that distraction as they’re trying to perform to the best of their abilities. That likely means that the two sides would have to come together next offseason and hammer something out, a tact that could end up costing the Maple Leafs even more.

There is little reason to believe that Matthews or Marner will take steps backwards this season given their individual talent and the expected improvement to the team. If they head into negotiations with new career highs, or even just a third season at the level they’ve been at their demands may increase. That said, both players would likely already be looking at huge contract extensions in any negotiations this summer, with players like Jack Eichel and Leon Draisaitl as potential comparables.

Dubas again seemed confident that all three of the Maple Leafs’ young stars will be with the club long-term, even going so far as to suggest the team try to keep them for their entire careers. While many have wondered how they’ll fit everyone in under the salary cap now that John Tavares is in town making $11MM per season, the young GM obviously has a plan in place. Nylander is the next step on that plan, and needs a contract in the next week or will be in danger of missing the start of training camp.

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