Leafs' president Shanahan says everything concerns him like "a typical Leaf fan"
There will likely be a point in time when Toronto Maple Leafs President Brendan Shanahan will be able to kick back his feet and watch a hockey game while relaxing on his couch.
But that doesn’t appear to be anytime soon.
In an interview with TSN’s Gino Reda on Monday, Shanahan cut his interviewer off with a joke when asked if he was concerned about William Nylander’s hot start to the season potentially driving up his contract value as a pending free agent heading into next summer.
“I get concerned about everything. I’m like a typical Leaf fan. Everything concerns me,” Shanahan said with a laugh. “Like I said, I think if you get concerned because you have players on your team playing really good hockey, you’ve gotta really check yourself. Look, I’m not going to talk about the details about [signing Nylander], but more focus right now is just to continue to improve. I think these tight games can be a benefit to us as we come down the stretch.”
The 27-year-old Nylander is off to the best start to a season in his NHL career, putting up 12 goals and 17 assists to lead the team in scoring with 29 points through 22 games. In the final year of a six-year deal with the Leafs, originally signed in December 2018, Nylander is expected to earn a significant pay raise from his current $6.96 million cap hit.
Toronto currently sits in fourth place in the Atlantic Division with a 12-6-4 record but has won just five of its games in regulation so far.
“The glass-half-full person in me would say we’ve also been a difficult team to beat. We have some of the top five or six fewest losses in the NHL,” Shanahan added. “The guys have proven that they’re a tough team to beat and that’s something we’ll assess over a full 82 games. It’s certainly an area we’d like to close games out when we have an opportunity to, but I also like our ability to fight back when we’ve been behind, and find ways to scratch out points.”
The full conversation between the two is available below.
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