Maple Leafs can’t afford to make same mistake twice with Rasmus Sandin

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Rasmus Sandin are at a stalemate in contract talks, and the team can’t let it drag on like they did with William Nylander.

Fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs will remember the lengthy contract negotiations between the team and William Nylander back in 2018, which saw the Swedish winger miss the first few months of the regular season before signing at the very last opportunity on Dec. 1.

Fast forward almost four years and the Leafs are at risk of repeating history with defenseman Rasmus Sandin, whose agent has stated publicly that talks between the two parties are going nowhere.

While it is still August, the fact that there has been no movement on a new deal for the restricted free agent will continue to be a storyline until something happens – whether that is a new deal, or a move that sees Sandin wear another jersey next season.

Toronto Maple Leafs have a decision to make with Rasmus Sandin

When Nylander’s contract negotiations were rolling along, with very little agreement between parties, there were calls for the Leafs to do something drastic – make a trade.

Trading Nylander would have netted the Leafs plenty of assets in return, but having him on the team is guaranteed value and the wait was certainly worth it in the long-run, with the 26-year-old still under contract through next season at a very friendly $6.962 million cap hit.

In Sandin’s situation, however, the Leafs can’t allow this negotiation to drag as long as it did with Nylander. To this day, he is still spoken about in negative tones by a number of Leafs fans and is regularly the first name mentioned when possible trades are discussed.

His play on the ice does not warrant this kind of negativity, but the bitter memory from his long negotiation, only to sign a deal that many had expected him to many months earlier, has clearly had a lingering effect.

For Sandin, if his situation is not resolved sooner, it could lead to the same views building amongst the fans.

Additionally, he does not even have the leverage that Nylander had at the time. He has not played nearly enough games, and has not shown nearly enough in the NHL to warrant such a lengthy process.

He could pan out to be a top-four defenseman in the NHL if he continues to develop well, having shown plenty of promise to date, but the Leafs already have enough players in their defensive corps that they could move on from Sandin without too much of a worry.

If there’s no signs of something happening between the two sides come October, then general manager Kyle Dubas may need to consider the trade alternative – acquiring assets of some kind, whether it’s draft picks or another NHL player, while moving on from an uncomfortably familiar situation.

The Leafs handed Timothy Liljegren a $1.4 million extension, and Sandin should not expect to earn much more than this — potentially up to $2 million AAV at most considering he averaged the sixth-highest number of minutes on the Leafs last year, just above Liljegren.

He is a bottom pair player at this moment, and a short-term bridge deal could be beneficial to both – giving him a chance to develop and push into a higher role, earning himself a bigger payday next time around.

However, if that’s not on the cards from either side, then discussions could begin to take too long and a separation may be the best for both if there’s any potential of a hold-out. A decision on Sandin’s future needs to be made sooner rather than later, regardless of the outcome.