William Nylander wants to stay \u2026 if, that is, the Leafs remain committed to chasing Stanley Cups and not tearing it all down.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless it was a full rebuild and we were going to get rid of everybody, then it\u2019s a different story. Then you take that conversation then,\u201d Nylander told The Athletic following practice on Wednesday. \u201cBut just to do a retool or whatever, I don\u2019t even know, but I mean, I still want to be here, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nylander has already delivered that message to management \u2014 or a past version of management, anyway. Before the trade deadline, Nylander had what he described as a \u201cgood conversation\u201d with then-GM Brad Treliving about the direction the team intended to take, a direction that hasn\u2019t changed (yet).<\/p>\n
\u201cBrad said that he doesn\u2019t want to rebuild or anything. He just wants to retool and stuff,\u201d Nylander said. \u201cThat sounded fine for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Treliving was fired earlier this week<\/a>, but Pelley suggested Tuesday<\/a> he was inclined for the Leafs to do exactly that in large part because of \u201cfoundational pieces\u201d like Nylander.<\/p>\n He also left the door open for the next leader of the Leafs to change his mind.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have generational pieces in 34 and in 88 and in 23 and in 91,\u201d said Pelley, referring to captain Auston Matthews, Nylander, Matthew Knies and John Tavares. \u201cWe have strong goaltending. There\u2019s a lot of positives. We now just have to surround those individuals with better pieces and that will be a decision and the task of the new head of hockey operations.\u201d<\/p>\n Nylander said his views on the matter haven\u2019t changed since his conversation with Treliving, though he has yet to speak with Pelley about the subject.<\/p>\n The 29-year-old\u2019s stance is (mostly) definitive in a way that contrasts with Matthews, the team\u2019s other primary foundational piece.<\/p>\n Pelley and Matthews exchanged texts after Treliving\u2019s firing, but haven\u2019t yet had a more detailed discussion about the direction of the organization. The captain will likely have a handful of conversations with Pelley before making any decisions on his own future in Toronto, according to league sources.<\/p>\n Nylander wasn\u2019t ready to say whether Matthews\u2019 decision would affect his own desires about the future.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, I haven\u2019t really thought about it, like that far,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce they just told me (rebuilding is) not what they want to do \u2014 like, try to keep winning here or try to start winning (Stanley Cups).\u201d<\/p>\n Then he added, \u201cIf that point in time comes, then I\u2019ll think about that then.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Keith Pelley sees William Nylander, John Tavares and Matthew Knies as cornerstone players for the Leafs. (Jeff Curry \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n If Matthews were to decide he wanted to play elsewhere, it\u2019s possible, though not certain, that the organization could pivot to a full-on rebuild, the kind Nylander is suggesting he doesn\u2019t necessarily want to be a part of.<\/p>\n Nylander has six years remaining on the eight-year, $92 million contract he signed in 2024.<\/p>\n Like Pelley, Nylander believes the Leafs are capable of bouncing back into contention next season with a retool this offseason. When it comes to the Leafs\u2019 future, he\u2019s \u201cnot too worried about it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou just look at Boston this year,\u201d he said of the division rival Bruins. \u201cThey were not in the playoffs last year and they\u2019re having a pretty good season this year.\u201d<\/p>\n What happened this year was \u201csuper frustrating and rattling,\u201d though.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why that conversation with Treliving, even if he is no longer with the organization, was important to Nylander. He wanted to \u201cmake sure that the team was on the same page to keep trying to win Cups versus trying to rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 The future of just about everyone with the Toronto Maple Leafs seems to be up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82,746],"class_list":{"0":"post-577407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"William](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/USATSI_28613645-scaled.jpg\")
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