Despite speculation from the contrary, the Toronto Maple Leafs will not be trading away one of their franchise players. Why would they?
The history of the NHL is extremely unkind to teams who trade away star forwards under 24 years old.
Sure, Nylander had a disappointing season based on results. The contract holdout was unfortunate, but it’s over now and he’s locked up for another five years. No point going through that just to bail now.
Ultimately, the underlying numbers are so good that no general manager in their right mind would trade him at his lowest possible value.