Toronto Maple Leafs management and head coach Mike Babcock have decided that the benefits of another three weeks of NHL experience outweigh the negative of burning the first year of William Nylander’s entry-level deal and will play the 19-year-old center in his 10th game against the Florida Panthers on Thursday.
The 2014 top pick -- who has two goals in nine games with the Leafs -- is likely to stay until the end of the regular season and return to the Toronto Marlies for the last week of the AHL season to prepare for the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Nylander has shown some high level skill since being called up after the February 29th trade deadline, but has also revealed shortcomings that may to be improved upon with more experience and getting stronger during the off-season.
Babcock indicated that Nylander will remain at center for the remainder of his stint with the Leafs and will not be shifted to the wing when Tyler Bozak returns from the injured list. Bozak participated in practice with the club on Wednesday after missing six weeks with a concussion thanks to an elbow from Ottawa forward Mika Zibanejad on February 6th.
The burning of the first year of the three-year entry-level contract would seem nonsensical from a Leafs point of view, as Nylander will become a restricted free agent after the 2017-18 season, but the calculation may be that it will be easier and more cost effective to re-sign the young forward to a short-term bridge deal off of quarter season with low offensive numbers and two full years in the NHL instead of three full seasons at age 23.
With his stint not eclipsing 40 games this season, the seven-year clock towards unrestricted free agency will not start ticking for Nylander until next season, meaning that he will be controllable by Toronto until he turns 27.
On the final day of the general manager’s meetings in Boca Raton, FL, the NHL revealed more details about the salary cap and details about potential expansion.
The league salary cap (currently at $71.4 Million) could go up to $74 Million per team for next season if the NHL Player’s Association agrees to the escalator clause that would entail an increase in escrow to almost one-fifth of all salaries. If the players decide to not activate the clause, the cap would remain at it’s current level next season.
The timetable and extent of NHL expansion has not been determined to this point, according to ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun, but the parameters regarding how many players can be protected has been laid out.
Teams have the option of shielding 11 players (7 forwards, 3 defensemen and 1 goalie) or eight skaters (regardless of position) and a goalie and will be limited to the loss of one player per expansion franchise. They will also have to expose players who total at least 25% of the club’s payroll from the previous season.
Players that are exempt from having to be protected are those with one and two years of professional hockey experience (which means ECHL, AHL or NHL) and unsigned draft picks (CHL, NCAA college or European players) more than two years away from their draft year.
The Leafs are set up well if the league decides to expand to Las Vegas and/or Quebec City before the NHL Draft in June for an expansion draft in the summer of 2017.
Players with expiring contracts (Brooks Laich, Milan Michalek, Matt Hunwick, Jonathan Bernier, Colin Greening) will either be moved as rentals before next year’s trade deadline or not protected because they will be unrestricted free agents. Expansion teams will not waste a selection on a player with an expiring contract and the Leafs will not protect anyone that can be re-signed after July 1.
Toronto will not have to protect anyone from their 2015 or 2016 draft classes, so Mitch Marner, Jeremy Bracco, Travis Dermott, Andrew Nielsen and Dmytro Timashov are safe. The club would have to sign their NCAA or European prospects from earlier drafts (Tony Cameranesi, Dominic Toninato, JJ Piccinich, Dakota Joshua, Nolan Vesey, Pierre Engvall, Fabrice Herzog), as they did with ’13 draft pick Andreas Johnson last summer to shelter them from being selected.
The bulk of the Marlies prospect pool (William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen, Brendan Leipsic, Zach Hyman, Nikita Soshnikov, Connor Brown, Josh Leivo, Viktor Loov, Stuart Percy and Rinat Valiev) will be entering their third year pro in the fall of 2017 and will either have to be protected or exposed, but they and young veterans Morgan Rielly, James van Riemsdyk and Jake Gardiner will take precedence over the bulk whatever players still remain from the Nonis/Carlyle era.
One interesting scenario could be that of injured winger Joffrey Lupul. The 32-year-old had season-ending sports hernia surgery in March and makes $5.25 Million for another two seasons. There has been talk that the Leafs will not buyout the winger this summer and keep him on injured reserve as they did with defenseman Stephane Robidas this season.
Even if Lupul plays next season, having him on the exposed list would constitute one-quarter of the 25% payroll requirement if Toronto were a cap team, which they likely will not be.
The rules for expansion are not etched in stone, but the Leafs appear to be well positioned to protect nearly all of their valuable players if they do not change.
Note : Continue to check back to my column on Hockeybuzz throughout the day for the latest Leafs updates or Follow @mikeinbuffalo on Twitter
*******If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact… button at the top of the page.*******
KINDLE USERS: Please sign up for Maple Leafs Buzz, which includes a free-of-charge 14-day trial and is just 99 cents per month afterwards. For more information click here.