Leafs will have four of NHL's top-11 cap hits next season
The biggest hammer left for the Toronto Maple Leafs this season finally came down on Monday.
After months — years, even — of wondering if William Nylander would stick around with the Leafs on a long-term deal, the veteran forward signed an eight-year, $92 million contract — the richest total in team history.
For his production in a contract year, Nylander couldn’t be playing much better: he’s put up 21 goals, 33 assists, and 54 points in 37 games, leading the team in both assists and points.
His point total is currently tied with the consensus best player in the world, Connor McDavid (albeit in three more games played).
And yet while there’s some cost certainty for both sides moving forward, the Leafs, by all accounts, lost the negotiation, paying Nylander $11.5 million per season.
While they’ve retained a premier player for the expected remainder of his prime years in the league, it’s unlikely they’ll ever earn full market value for his next deal.
If Nylander’s current contract was a bargain over the course of the six-year deal worth $45 million, signed in December 2018, Toronto can only hope to earn somewhat close to a fitting return on this upcoming deal.
More interestingly, though, the Leafs will have four of the NHL’s top-11 cap hits next season, as things currently stand across the league.
Auston Matthews comes in as the richest of the bunch, making $13.25 million starting next season on a four-year deal that runs through 2027-28. That’s the richest cap hit in the NHL, ahead of Nathan Mackinnon ($12.6 million) and Connor McDavid ($12.5 million).
Nylander trails behind him at $11.5 million per year through 2031-32 (fifth in the league), and John Tavares carries a cap hit of $11 million through the end of the 2024-25 season (tied for eighth in the league). Fourth on the Leafs, and 11th overall — but perhaps now the most complicated — is Mitch Marner, carrying a deal worth $10.9 million each year, also expiring at the end of 2024-25.
It’s clear the Leafs are committed heavily to winning at the highest level, aiming to correct their long-made-fun-of playoff woes. Winning their first series since 2004 last spring with a first-round victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, the expectations couldn’t be higher for the current roster.
While the Leafs have much of their long-term salary mapped out, it isn’t too long before the negotiations likely start at trying to keep Tavares and Marner around by re-signing them on long-term deals of their own past 2025.
That’s a different problem for a different day, and one the Leafs won’t be able to officially deal with until July 1 of this year. But for now, they’ll be placing plenty of pressure on the four forwards that have defined a generation of Toronto hockey, for better or worse.
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