Leafs made a pact with Nylander to not leak contract talks to media: report

The Toronto Maple Leafs and William Nylander seem to have at least come to some kind of agreement, even if it’s not an actual new contract.

Nylander has 10 goals and 12 assists in 15 games this season to lead Toronto in scoring, but can possibly hit unrestricted free agency this summer for the first time in his career.

Signing a six-year, $45 million contract back in December 2018 with Toronto, Nylander is set for a likely considerable pay raise on his new deal.

But we probably won’t hear much about it until the new contract is signed, whether that’s in Toronto or elsewhere.

TSN’s Pierre Lebrun suggested during an appearance on the network’s Insider Trading segment on Thursday that the Leafs and Nylander are still discussing a contract for him, but both sides intend on keeping any leaks about the process as limited as possible.

“I think people should be careful reading into it, the thing about it is that it’s been quiet by design. Both sides made a pact before the season started, they did not want any leaks whatsoever, both sides wanted to be tight-lipped and that’s exactly the way it’s played out so far,” LeBrun reported.

“The reality is, if this thing had gone off the rails, you probably would be hearing more because we’d get some message-sending from one side or the other… The dialogue is ongoing, both sides keep going back and forth, they hope to get something done between now and July 1. But it’s a difficult contract to get done.”

In a media market like Toronto’s, that’s usually all over Toronto players’ contract information, it would be impressive if the Nylander contract comes out of nowhere. Then again, after Auston Matthews broke his own contract news earlier this year, maybe we shouldn’t be all that surprised.