Toronto Maple Leafs right winger William Nylander said he's willing to stay if the club retools the roster, plus some suggestions for how the club can improve for next season.
The Toronto Maple Leafs' tumble in the standings this season led to the firing of GM Brad Treliving earlier this week.
It also raised speculation about the future of captain Auston Matthews with the club as he continues to recover from knee surgery.
Matthews hasn't publicly indicated his intentions yet, but we now know where teammate William Nylander stands.
On Thursday, Nylander told The Athletic's Jonas Siegel and Chris Johnston that he's willing to be part of the Maple Leafs if they're preparing to retool the roster. However, he's not as keen to do so if they intend to rebuild.
"Unless it was a full rebuild and we were going to get rid of everybody, then it's a different story," Nylander said. "But just to do a retool or whatever, I don't even know, but I mean, I still want to be here, yeah."
Nylander is in the second season of an eight-year contract with an average annual value of $11.5 million. The 29-year-old also has a full no-movement clause. He indicated that now-former Leafs GM Brad Treliving told him before the trade deadline that the club intended to retool the roster.
"That sounded fine to me," Nylander said.
Retooling, not a rebuild, is also the path that Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment president-CEO Keith Pelley wants to take. He made that clear during his press conference on Tuesday, when he revealed the club's plans to replace Treliving.
Nylander also indicated that he's not ready yet to say whether Matthews' plans would affect his own. Nevertheless, he believes the Maple Leafs can rebound the same way the Boston Bruins did this season.
That's going to put tremendous pressure on Treliving's successor, who is expected to be hired before the end of May.
Sportsnet's Justin Bourne offered up some suggestions for the next Leafs GM to address that issue.
One of them is replacing coach Craig Berube. Bourne proposed former Dallas Stars coach Peter DeBoer or Bruce Cassidy, who was fired by the Vegas Golden Knights earlier this week.
Bourne also suggested adding a right winger who is good defensively and can make players. He suggested dipping into this summer's UFA market for someone such as Viktor Arvidsson of the Bruins or Jaden Schwartz of the Seattle Kraken.
Adding a meaningful defenseman was another suggestion. Bourne wondered whether Darren Raddysh might be available. The 29-year-old Tampa Bay Lightning blueliner is also UFA-eligible this summer. He also proposed adding a middle-six center, such as pending UFA Charlie Coyle of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Maple Leafs possess over $23 million in projected salary cap space with 19 active roster players under contract for next season. Given their limited amount of trade capital, they'd stand a better chance of bolstering their lineup via free agency.
Raddysh, Arvidsson, Schwartz and Coyle are among the best of a thin free-agent market. Even with their cap space, the Leafs could end up overpaying to land one or two of them.
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