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The Toronto Maple Leafs face a difficult task against one of the best teams in the NHL, as they take on the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Arena on Thursday. The Stars lost to Vegas in the Western Conference Final last season and are 4-0-1 thus far, and have an excellent young core in Miro Heiskanen, Wyatt Johnston, Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz) to go along with a veteran group (Joe Pavelski, Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn).
The game promised to be a match between Team USA 2018 World Junior teammates Jake Oettinger and Joseph Woll, but Stars head coach Peter DeBoer indicated that Oettinger was being rested and that backup Scott Wedgewood would go against Toronto.
“I had a good opportunity to play with (Jake) and play against him at every level. He’s pretty awesome.… Woll said. “I’m really happy to see the success he’s had, and I hope I get a chance to play against him sometime in my career.…
Thursday in Texas 📠pic.twitter.com/IHkqgeIhqa
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) October 26, 2023
Toronto is hoping that Woll can eventually take over in goal as Oettinger did in Dallas after playing behind veterans Ben Bishop, Braden Holtby and Anton Khudobin. The Leafs will likely give Woll more work between the pipes if he continues to perform has well as he did in relief against Tampa and against the Capitals.
The Leafs will be sticking with the lineup that won 4-1 in Washington on Tuesday, sitting rookie Fraser Minten in favor of Pontus Holmberg.
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TSN’s Darren Dreger speculated that the Leafs offer to William Nylander is likely an eight-year max deal around $9.75 million per season, but based on the year that Nylander is having so far, he thinks he could get more in free agency next summer.
The Leafs only advantage in negotiations is their ability to offer the eighth year and spread the salary out and lower the AAV. An eight-year deal at $9.75 million is $78 million. For Nylander to make that amount on a seven-year deal elsewhere, he would have to sign for an AAV of over $11 million.
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