{"id":577769,"date":"2026-04-02T17:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/577769\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T17:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:01:11","slug":"arring-rebuild-i-still-want-to-be-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/577769\/","title":{"rendered":"arring rebuild, \u2018I still want to be here\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

William Nylander<\/a> still wants to be a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old forward tells TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston and Jonas Siegel in The Athletic<\/a> that, barring a rebuild, he wants to remain with the only team he\u2019s ever played for in his 11-year career.<\/p>\n

The Calgary-born Sweden international is playing out the second year of an eight-year, $92 million deal. The Leafs are set to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless it was a full rebuild and we were going to get rid of everybody, then it\u2019s a different story,\u201d Nylander said. \u201cThen you take that conversation then. But 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

Called one of four \u201cgenerational pieces\u201d on the team earlier this week by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment president Keith Pelley during his press conference discussing the firing of general manager Brad Treliving along with Matthew Knies<\/a>, John Tavares<\/a> and captain Auston Matthews<\/a>, Nylander says he hasn\u2019t even thought about how the future of Matthews, who is set to become a free agent in June of 2028, might affect his.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I haven\u2019t really thought about it, like that far,\u201d Nylander 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]…If that point in time comes, then I\u2019ll think about that then.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the immediate future of the club, Nylander struck a positive tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just look at Boston this year,\u201d Nylander said. \u201cThey were not in the playoffs last year and they\u2019re having a pretty good season this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 58 games this season, Nylander has 26 goals and 45 assists. His 288 career goals are ninth all-time in club history and his 683 points are eighth-most all-time.<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs continue a California swing on Thursday evening with a visit to the San Jose Sharks<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"William Nylander still wants to be a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 29-year-old forward tells TSN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[712,49,48,448,82,74650,86762],"class_list":{"0":"post-577769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-10","14":"tag-william-nylander-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8477939"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577769","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=577769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}