Leafs' AHL team signs William Nylander's brother to contract
The Toronto Maple Leafs’ AHL team is keeping it in the family as the Toronto Marlies announced the signing of forward Alex Nylander earlier today.
Nylander, who split last season between the AHL and the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, is the younger brother of Maple Leafs superstar William Nylander. This is the first time the two brothers have been in the same organization since Alex was drafted eighth overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2016 NHL Draft.
Nylander was inked to a one-year AHL deal with the Marlies.
🖊 News | We've signed forward Alex Nylander to a one-year AHL contract. #LongLive
— Toronto Marlies (@TorontoMarlies) July 28, 2024
Due to Nylander signing an AHL contract, Nylander will not be able to move up to the NHL this season to play with his brother. For that to happen, he would have to sign a separate deal with the Leafs, something that has an outside chance of happening if he manages to impress management with the Marlies.
It has been the tale of two very different careers for the Nylander brothers. William has cemented himself as a bonafide star in the NHL since he was drafted by the Leafs back in 2014. The elder Nylander is coming off a 40-goal season with the Leafs and just recently signed a massive eight-year $92 million contract.
On the other hand, Alex has struggled to live up to his draft pedigree and has not been able to break into the NHL as a regular player. Instead, Nylander has seen himself be shipped around the league, having been traded three times and only appearing in 121 games.
The two brothers have played against each other before with the latest coming last season while Alex was a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Brotherly love. 💙💛 pic.twitter.com/U02Qu4MHEq
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 26, 2023
It did appear that he was hitting some sort of stride with the Blue Jackets to end last season, scoring 15 points in 23 games to end the season, but it doesn’t appear that spike in production was enough to convince an NHL team to give him another shot at things.
One positive for the brothers is that they will now be playing in the same city as both the Leafs and Marlies call Toronto home.
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