Emily Kaplan on Nylander’s extension, Matthews’ bid for a second career Hart Trophy, & much more: Leafs Morning Take

Following an impressive three-game California swing, the Leafs are back home to tangle with San Jose to finish off a home and home with the last place Sharks.

Even though the Sharks have dropped 11 in a row, as we’re all well aware by now, this  game will be anything but a layup for the Maple Leafs. That said, maybe they’re finding their way against inferior opponents a bit here —we’ll see.

At any rate, we kicked off the Tuesday edition of Leafs Morning Take by discussing Joseph Woll. In case you missed it, the 25-year-old did some ‘light skating’ with goalie coach Curtis Sanford ahead of Tuesday’s morning skate. After practice, unsurprisingly, Sheldon Keefe said Woll’s nowhere close to returning. Meantime, we also discussed Mitch Marner and what his next contract could look like. By the sounds of it, the Marner camp has their eyes set on something well north of $11.5 million per season —William Nylander’s AAV.

Presented by Door Dash, The Appetizer focused on the full fallout from the Nylander extension. John Tavares said he’s built for Toronto while Nylander said Toronto is home. As expected, every cliché was chucked out there. At the end of the day, Nylander is now in position to potentially be a Leaf for life, and that’s great.

After that, courtesy the Wendy’s Daily Faceoff Survivor, we teed up Toronto’s second straight meeting with San Jose. Martin Jones will get the call. The Leafs are a perfect 3-0-0 to start off 2024.

Additionally, thanks to our friends over at BATL Axe, we welcomed in ESPN’s National NHL Reporter Emily Kaplan for a chat. We talked Nylander, Auston Matthews’ bid for a second career Hart Trophy, plus much, much more. Check it out!

Anthony Stewart will be my co-host for the Wednesday edition of Leafs Morning Take. In addition to recapping Leafs/Sharks, Anthony will share his thoughts on the Nylander extension and where the Leafs go from here. Tune in at 11 AM ET!