William Nylander is still a free agent and the Arizona Coyotes could be in an ideal position to offer a trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs for him.
The young Swedish star is locked in contract negotiations with the team, via agent Lewis Gross, but there has been very little progress on securing his services for the long-term.
What appears to be the biggest concern, for the Leafs, is Nylander’s financial demands, with $8 million the rumoured asking price, while the Leafs are hoping for close to $6.5 million.
There have been plenty of rumours and discussion about ideal trade partners for Nylander and the Arizona Coyotes have a lot going for them in this instance.
For one, the cap is not a concern for the team – with the team currently having a fairly healthy $9 million available this season.
Next season, the Coyotes have Dave Bolland‘s $5.5 million off the books and will have plenty of space to re-negotiate their own free agents.
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Having cap space is the first question mark with high-profile, high-cost players and the Coyotes have enough room to make a deal.
Defensively, the team is also fairly well set – sporting an incredible 88% success rate with their penalty-killing unit.
The team’s defence has great depth with captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson being backed up by the likes of Niklas Hjalmarsson and Jason Demers.
The biggest area of need for the Coyotes is on offence, with the team having had some early struggles in front of the net.
Alex Galchenyuk has returned by Christian Dvorak could potentially miss the entire season after having a set-back with his injury.
This leaves Ric Tocchet with fewer options to bolster his team’s offence.
The Leafs, on the other hand, are in the market for defencemen and the Coyotes could arguably have enough to offer them as a return for Nylander.
Jakob Chychrun, while having immense potential, could be a player that the Leafs would be interested in if they opted to deal their young Swedish star.
Chychrun would be a big loss for the Coyotes, based on potential alone.
He is currently injured and has not yet been able to play a full 82-game season in the NHL, with 68 regular season games in his rookie campaign being his highest total thus far.
Nylander is an immediate upgrade for most teams in the NHL and is guaranteed to provide around 60 points a season – having had 61 in the past two seasons.
He is a flexible player capable of lining up out on the wing as well as being pushed further inside, as a centre.
Nylander could be used as a supporting player on the Coyotes’ top line, alongside Clayton Keller and Galchenyuk – providing them with a truly deadly top line, with Derek Stepan being dropped down to the second line.
If the team isn’t willing to part with Chychrun, a combination of players and picks could certainly be on the cards if the Coyotes are truly interested in landing a big name.
What do you think Coyotes fans? Do you think the Coyotes would be able to accommodate a trade for Nylander? What would be a fair deal for both clubs? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!