The Nylander Catch-22 (aka The Nylander Saga, The Nylander Crisis, etc)

It's December 1st, the day before my Mum's birthday, and the deadline for signings in the National Hockey League.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, sitting pretty in second place in the Eastern division and playing their best hockey in many a year, have one more decision to make: William Nylander. Nylander is a fine young talent and fun to watch, even if he doesn't produce as many points as some other players, and Toronto currently has a good young roster that seems to be gelling and enjoying playing together. They are getting the job done pretty well without Nylander (and even without star scorer Auston Matthews for most of the season). Matthews, Mitch Marner, Jake Gardiner, Kasperi Kapanen, Andreas Johnson, John Tavares, and several more that could be mentioned, are all firing on all cylinders at the moment.

But, you might say, why not take on Nylander as well if he can be bought within the hard salary cap that NHL teams now operate under? Nylander - or possibly his father Michael Nylander, another hard bargain-driver during his day in the NHL, and the man who is rumoured to be behind Nylander Jr's stake-out - is thought to an asking for around $8 million a year, and Toronto still has about $17 million of their approximately $80 million kitty for this year.

So, yes they could afford him. But the complication comes next year, when a few other key players become restricted or unrestricted free agents. Can they afford Nylander then? In addition, fitting Nylander into what is already operating as a well-oiled machine might be tricky this far into the season - such chemistries are easily disrupted - and who knows what resentments might be triggered among the players. And if the Toronto management put a spoke in that well-oiled machine by inserting Nylander, they will not be easily forgiven by thousands of armchair managers in Toronto.

So, not an easy decision. But Nylander's brinksmanship rankles with me, and I would prefer not to take him - and, hopefully, discourage such behaviour in the process - than to risk disrupting the fine balance that, after all these years, the Maple Leafs appear to have attained.

UPDATE
At the 11th hour, or more like 11:45, the Maple Leafs did in fact re-sign Nylander, for approximately $45 million over 6 years. That's a lot of money, and I hope it proves wise.
Nylander's first game back was ho-hum (on the part of the whole team), resulting in the end of a 5-game winning streak. It would be easy - but probably misguided - to blame that on disruption from Nylander's return. Well, let's wait and see...