TORONTO — The next phase of the Shanaplan may yet prove more difficult than the first.
As the Toronto Maple Leafs prepare to open a season where they are finally considered legitimate Stanley Cup contenders, Brendan Shanahan pulled back the curtain on the difficult negotiations that have kept dynamic winger William Nylander away from the team.
Shanahan confirmed that the Leafs are asking Nylander to take a little less on his second NHL contract so that the organization can keep its young core intact. The president also hinted that the same approach will be taken with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner when their entry-level deals expire next summer.
“We’re working hard towards William. We drafted William. We’re big fans of William. We want William to be a part of this, but obviously this is a process that he needs to go through,” Shanahan told reporters before Wednesday’s season opener against Montreal. “I can speak from personal experience that when I get together with some of my old teammates from the [Stanley] Cup years in Detroit, we talk about winning together and growing together and that’s what we remember looking back. At the end of the day we all found a way to fit with each other so that we could keep adding to the group.
“And that’s obviously what we are asking some of our young leaders to do.”
As much as those players may love being part of what the Leafs are building, it will not be an easy sell. You can bet that the NHL Players’ Association won’t like hearing those type of comments — from a former union member and Hockey Hall of Famer, no less — while agents will push back against that ideology when negotiating with Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas.
Still, the approach has worked elsewhere.
David Poile, for one, has managed to sell several Predators stars on the idea of taking “Nashville dollars” when doing their extensions. He’s also only handed out one no-movement clause, to goaltender Pekka Rinne, while building his roster into a contender.
Even though Toronto doesn’t offer the same kind of income tax or real-estate benefits NHLers find in Tennessee, the Leafs can trumpet the long-term benefits of being associated with a team that may end a 50-plus-year Stanley Cup drought. There will be jobs for life if you’re ever part of the group who accomplishes that.
Shanahan held up John Tavares as an example of someone buying into the front office’s philosophy. It’s believed he could have commanded as much as $13 million per year in free agency before agreeing to an $11-million AAV on his seven-year contract with the Leafs on July 1.
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“We were able to attract a player like that who could’ve made more money elsewhere and who is still doing very, very well financially. But it wasn’t his responsibility to set a new bar or to please other people with other interests,” said Shanahan. “He’s a hockey player. He wanted to come here and win hockey games. He wanted to be treated fairly, and he is. And yes, that is what we would hope for and expect from our players as we go forward.
“It’s not for everyone. But for the ones that will play here, that is what they want or that’s what we want from them and I think that’s what they want from each other.”
So far it has not been for Nylander, who remains home in Stockholm with negotiations stuck in a stalemate. The Leafs are believed to be offering him in the range of $6 million annually on a long-term contract while the 22-year-old is still holding out hope of getting something significantly higher.
With the season now underway, Nylander is sacrificing as much as $35,000 in lost salary for each day he remains unsigned.
The negotiations could be equally difficult for Matthews and Marner, especially following a season where the Leafs are going to score a boatload of goals. It would not be at all surprising to see Matthews push for the Connor McDavid contract ($12.5-million AAV over eight years) while Marner tries to match the Jack Eichel deal ($10-million AAV over eight years).
That would put a significant strain on an organization that has gone through a rapid and encouraging rebuild since Shanahan was hired in 2014. The president is now trying to push back against various market forces, sending a direct message to his players about what’s at stake.
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“There’s a lot of other voices [in the background] and understandably so,” said Shanahan. “But we think that the players that we currently have, while it’s not going to be easy, we have great confidence that they have bought into being a part of this program and being a part of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and representing Toronto in a way that they understand what’s going to be most important.
“What I hope they can look back on 20 years, 30 years down the road, what’s going to be most important to them is whether or not they maxed out as an individual and as a team and have championships to look back on and remember forever.”
Whether or not they’re eventually successful will speak to the trust the front office is able to build with the individuals involved. One of the concerns held by the Nylander camp is that the Leafs could trade him over the next five seasons if he agrees to a deal below market value.
It’s an understandable fear in a hard-cap league where players aren’t permitted to have any form of no-trade protection during their first seven seasons. The business of the sport has changed significantly since Shanahan’s glory years in Detroit, but he’s hoping there’ll be enough similarities for this group to buy into his vision.
“At the end of the day, when I talk about fondly looking back [with former Red Wings teammates], we all did quite well,” said Shanahan. “We all did quite well financially. We all did quite well professionally on the ice as well. We’re a lucky group of people to be involved in hockey and the luckiest group are the ones that have an opportunity to live out their dreams and play in the NHL.”
