What to do about nylander

Agree with you he has been playing at summer league level. Doubt if Dubas or Babcock "sits him down", Nylander has to know he's crap this year. But Dubas's "promise" was to keep the core together. Come summer, since he is no longer part of the core (due to level of play) he gets traded for cap purposes as you suggest

From what I've seen he's actually more aggressive t han previously. It looks like he is trying to force a goal, as opposed to his more usual laid-back sort of playing style. With that said I think he has looked really good lately, it's just that the points aren't there yet. Everything in his numbers points to him bouncing back sooner rather than later. I also don't think anyones judgement should be clouded by the fact that the Leafs were shooting crazy high %ages before he came back, they were due to regress regardless. Nylander at under 7 is pretty great value. Considering you signed Kapanen for 3 here, that means Nylander and KK can fill two spots on ther roster otherwise occupied by Marner and a player making 1m - those are usually not very good, and I'd rather have Ny+KK in that scenario. Strålman is a good player, even at that cap hit, but not compared to Willy, and the Leafs have good d-prospects in their system.

TLDR; Nylander is currently unlucky, rather trade Zaitsev or don't sign a defenseman and play kids

RELAX everyone.

Our fan base has absolutely zero patience. Nylander might be crap the rest of this year. That's just a possibility we have to come to terms with. Some guys that sit out as long as he has never get firing at full speed at all that season.

Also, everyone seems to forget what Nylander looked like on the ice the past 3 seasons. He's always had the appearance of being laid-back. When contract talks were going south and his agent was asked about how Nylander was doing, his first comment was about his zen-like demeanor.

It's tough for guys like Dave Poulin or Ray Ferraro...guys that wore their intensity on their sleeves when they played...to watch a guy like Nylander...someone who looks like he doesn't care...and when he's slumping, they blame effort. Then everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Same thing (for different reason) happened with Zaitsev last year and now 80% of fans think he's junk without watching him play.

Nylander has always been streaky. Playing on a line with Matthews the past couple years has helped him from the slumps lasting too long.

Here's the difference...Nylander slumping while making $832,500 vs Nylander slumping at $7m cap hit makes the pitchforks come out. He hasn't stopped being the highly skilled player he's always been as a pro. He hasn't stopped being a laid-back personality. I do think the stress of living up to the new contract and being snake bitten has made him press a bit more. But anyone who's ready to jettison him now hasn't been watching him the past few seasons...and definitely shouldn't get into financial advising as you don't get rid of an asset when it's value is lowest.

I think Dubas & Co. still view Nylander as a core piece...and more likely to move complimentary pieces around the core in order to get them all signed...

That being said, I am fine with trading Nylander...but only if it's at full value. A lot of yahoo's on here think 15 games and 3 points is his new norm