Leafs and Nylander “continue strong dialogue”

Kyle Dubas and William Nylander’s agent David Gross met in New York on Monday to discuss the restricted free agent’s contract, and, based on reports from Pierre LeBrun and Nick Kypreos, things went well.

This, of course, is much, much better than the stalemate the two sides had been operating at before. In the past few weeks, the news surrounding Nylander’s contract situation is that both sides had a number and neither were interested in budging.

Further positive news from the Kypreos report beyond the fact the two sides are working together is the fact the Leafs and Nylander’s camp are looking at a long-term deal. There was talk recently that the compromise would be a two-year bridge deal for Nylander akin to the one Tampa Bay gave to Nikita Kucherov a few years back. Of course, that wouldn’t help the Leafs much in the long-term as they’d be back doing the same dance with Nylander in a couple years when he has even more leverage. The long-term deal, of course, is the ideal outcome here for the Leafs and it seems that’s what we’re moving towards.

Given the fact the Leafs have only scored one goal in their past two games, it would be really, really nice to see Nylander out there as soon as possible.