William Nylander and the Maple Leafs are wiping the slate clean heading into next season, according to Elliotte Friedman.
In his latest 32 Thoughts column this week, Friedman reported the two sides are ready to move past a tense stretch.
"I think last year was a really tough year between William Nylander and the organization," Friedman wrote. "But everybody gets a fresh start."
That rocky year still produced 79 points for Nylander, with 30 goals and 49 assists across 65 games.
He chipped in seven power play goals and 15 power play assists, still Toronto's most dangerous weapon with the man advantage.
Calling it a tough year almost undersells it. The Maple Leafs finished 32-36-14 for 78 points, a minus-46 goal differential and 28th overall in the league.
New head coach Jim Hiller was hired in June, inheriting a group that closed the season on a seven-game losing streak.
Jim Hiller inherits a Maple Leafs team desperate for answers
Nylander was still producing down the stretch. He put up 12 points over his final 10 games and six in his last five.
His minus-9 rating over that stretch tells its own story though, and it lines up with a team that couldn't stop bleeding goals.
Fresh start talk is easy to sell in July. It gets a lot harder if Toronto opens next season looking anything like the group that just finished 28th overall.
Nylander carries an $11,500,000 cap hit, one of the largest on a roster that badly underachieved relative to its price tag.
Friedman's framing suggests the front office wants a reset in tone, not just results. Whether that actually changes anything is a different question.
Hiller inherits a top-six built around Nylander, John Tavares and Auston Matthews, none of whom escaped last season unscathed.
Matthews finished with 53 points in 60 games, well off his usual pace, while Tavares posted 71 points but a minus-28 rating.
A fresh start sounds good in a column. It means nothing until Toronto proves it on the ice, and nobody in that room has answers yet.
-
Should the Maple Leafs blow up the core around William Nylander this offseason?
Also read on Markerzone.com:
It's down to two: Patrick Kane's decision is getting closer
