Was Kyle Dubas wise to let us in on promise to William Nylander?

TORONTO — Beyond the anecdotes from the final-moments panic dial that saved William Nylander’s season (and his money-green on money-green on money-green suit) the one thing that captured the attention of the media inside the dressing room he nearly vacated for good at the end of his months-long stalemate was the apparent promise that the hard-bargaining Swede was safe in Maple Leafs colours — even without no-movement protection in the $42 million deal.

Leafs GM Kyle Dubas said that it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that the Leafs have no intention on trading Nylander as long as he’s in charge, saying simply and with only a smidge of condescension, “he’s an excellent young player. I don’t think we want to be in the business of not having excellent young players.”

But keeping the Maple Leafs’ ultra talented core in tact without pillaging its surrounding skill is proving to be a more difficult task than originally planned.

To his credit, the immensely-confident, totally-self-aware Leafs architect is willing to admit that he’s learning on the fly in this critical stage for the franchise.

To wit: he started into a self-evaluation when asked what surprised him about the negotiation.

“That it took so long, frankly, I’m disappointed in myself,” he said, quickly looking within. “I’m obviously hopeful that we’ll learn from it. I don’t want any of our players to have to go through this again. And I don’t want our coaching staff to have that distraction as we move ahead.

“That falls on me. We’ll learn from it and make sure we take it into account with future contracts.”

With Mitch Marner shining in his third season, Auston Matthews ready to cash in on his superstardom, and a precedent now set in the Nylander negotiation, the lift on Dubas’s end only promises to be more taxing, and with higher stakes.

So why did he make life more difficult? Not by just providing Nylander his word that he wouldn’t be traded, but allowing that information to be public?

It should be mentioned that Nylander was first to mention the assurance he was given, but at the same time, Dubas had no problem corroborating the story. While it’s possible the Leafs would have preferred to keep that information behind closed doors, Dubas doubled down on it — and with it put his reputation on the line.

Given the organization’s stance, the idea that Nylander’s tenure with the Maple Leafs is finite due to the team’s weakness at right-shot defence is predominantly media-driven. There are other avenues to explore, of course, if the time comes to re-distribute talent among positions on the active roster. If you’re willing to take Dubas’s word, it’ll be those with which the Maple Leafs will exclusively pursue.

And yet it’s impossible not to take in consideration the fact that Nylander’s contract was structured in a way that only increases his value in the trade market long term.

Receiving most of his money up front and earning a middle-class base salary in the final few seasons of the contract with a fixed AAV at just short of $7 million, Nylander sets up to be an especially attractive trade target to budget-conscious teams shuttering at the fact that the NHL’s salary cap is expected to rise to $83 million next season, and likely sky-rocket beyond that with more expansion money coming in.

It’s possible the pennies-on-the-dollar deal the organization didn’t want to have to stomach could wind up being presented back to them.

Then what?

It’s Dubas’s expectation that the Leafs will achieve incredible things with a forward group that match talent with any other team in the NHL. For that reason, he won’t regret giving an inch in negotiations that turned out to be much more difficult than he imagined, given the alternative.

If it doesn’t turn out as planned, though, and fundamental flaws undo all they have built in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, letting everyone in on his pact with Nylander could soon be chalked up as another learning experience.

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