With Marleau without others

4.9 annual cash payout for Nylander? Well that’s not even close to true.

I will never understand why people see trading Nylander for pennies on the dollar only to massively overpay Kapanen and Johnsson as a good idea. Nylander is far better than either of the other two and they have literally done nothing to deserve such big contracts. If that is there demand trade them. See if Minnesota would consider some kind of Kapanen for Greenway trade. Overpaying depth players is a recipe for disaster. The middle class in the NHL is on its way out, soon the play drivers will demand a much higher salary than those who benefit playing with them. Kapanen at times looked really good with Matthews but on his own, has difficulty doing much other than being a responsible player, sure that has value but nothing close to these kinds of numbers.

Massively overpay Kapanen? Gee, he had 20 goals, 44 points. The best Nylander did was two seasons at 20 goals 61 points. So who is overpaid Kapanen at 4m or Nylander at 7m?
I know it's subjective, but to think Nylander is "far better", I think is false. At value per dollar, I would take Kapanen and Johnson on the team at 7.8 combined rather than Nylander at 7m.
And talk about struggling without Matthews....what did Nylander do this season. 7 goals, 20 assists, 27 points in 54 games.

Nylander missed training camp, and never really was given a chance to play with Matthews. Despite a 10 game stretch where he did and also had 9 points in those games before Babcock moved him down in hopes of energizing both Kadri and Kapanen who hadn't scored in a while. Then in the playoffs, playing with Matthews, Kapanen had 1 good game. Nylander played most of the series with two players who just can't score anymore and still ended up with more points than Kapanen. Nylander is better, he had 2 60 point seasons while Kapanen couldn't crack the lineup.

I get that you really don't like Nylander but there is utterly no reasonable arguement to suggest this last season was anything other than a bad luck outlier fueled by missing training camp and a 3rd of the season. I think Kapanen gets way too much love for what he's accomplished. He had 20 goals and 44 points in his first full season, I think his best season of his career will be a 30+ goal 60 point season where I think Nylander's best season will be upwards of 90 points and 30+ goals. So which is a better contract? A point a game player at just under 7 or a 40-60 point winger making 5? I'd take the point a game guy 100% of the time, especially when you should be able to find a cheaper 40 point guy from the players that are being developed in the system.

Sorry if you think because I disagree with you that "I don't like Nylander". I just think there are better value for Leafs than Nylander. And and Leafs have to shed cap this season. Yes, a point a game guy making 7m would e a bargain. But it isn't Nylander....he's a .75 game a guy, until proven otherwise. And I think he's going to have prove it for another team.