5 Reasons New Jersey Devils Could Trade For William Nylander

Maple Leafs Restricted Free Agents

The Maple Leafs have Jake Gardiner, Ron Hainsey, and Tyler Ennis as unrestricted free agents. They have no interest in bringing them back, because they just can’t afford it. They can’t even think of bringing back Gardiner because of how much their restricted free agents are going to make.

One restricted free agent in particular that’s going to ruin their cap space is Mitch Marner. He’s going to command at the VERY LEAST $8 million per season. That’s on the lowest possible end of this. Marner compares favorably to the likes of Mark Stone and David Pastrnak. Stone is getting paid a premium at $9.5 million and Pastrnak is getting paid a deal at $6.66 million.

Some say Marner is looking for $10 million, and Brad Marchand thinks he deserves $12 million, although that feels like he’s planning for something there. At $10 million, Marner might be the one getting traded. However, this is a winger who’s upside is a 100-point player. Trading a player like that when he’s 21 years old seems crazier than trading Nylander at the bottom of his value.

The Maple Leafs also have Kasperi Kapanen and Andrea Johnsson. Neither of them will come close to the contracts of Nylander or Marner, but combined expect their contracts to his $6-$7 million total.

That means the Leafs have to come up with at least $15 million in cap space when there’s only $6 million to work with. Getting rid of Nylander now makes that $15 million. That at least figures that mess out.