Two teams that have been surprising to start the season but for opposite reasons are the Vancouver Canucks and the Toronto Maple Leafs. For Toronto, the season is coming dangerously close to falling off the rails as the team has now lost more games than they've won with a 5-4-2 record. In Vancouver, things could not be going any better, almost literally. Their 8-2-1 record is good for 2nd in the Pacific division. They only trail the stellar 11-0-1 Golden Knights.
While the Leafs have reportedly been looking to trade Tyler Bertuzzi, a new rumor has begun to swirl around the air in Vancouver. The Canucks and Leafs are reportedly looking at a one-for-one swap of Brock Boeser and William Nylander.
While this move looks like a straight downgrade for the Leafs, there is more than meets the eye. For starters, Nylander in on an expiring contract. If the Leafs genuinely feel that they won't be able to re-sign the forward this offseason, trading him might make a lot of sense. Second, Boeser has another year left on his contract. This means that the Leafs would be getting about 300k in extra cap space this season and likely much more next season.
As Nylander is a pending UFA, he is likely going to get a raise to the tune of millions of dollars. This means that the Leafs would be able to keep their new core together while adding other pieces that would not have been affordable had the team re-signed Nylander.
From the Canucks perspective, they might be happy to move on from Boeser as there have been rumors of him wanting out of Vancouver for a few years now. Additionally, with big contracts like Tyler Myers and Anthony Beauvillier coming off the books this offseason, they have the cap space to give Nylander the raise he deserves.
