Trevor Zegras: a situation comparable to that of William Nylander in his day

Last night, my colleague Michaël Petit analyzed the fact that young Alexis Lafrenière of the New York Rangers had still not signed his new contract for next season.

He also mentioned talented Anaheim Ducks center Trevor Zegras, who has yet to sign his next contract.

What makes the Zegras situation more complex, however, is that he has the necessary arguments to sign a lucrative long-term contract directly rather than a bridge contract.

And this is surely at the heart of why the Ducks’ number 11 has yet to sign.

If we understand the situation correctly, Zegras, like several other young players like Tim Stützle, wants to follow the current NHL trend of bypassing the bridge contract in order to sign a more lucrative long-term contract directly.

With two 60+ point seasons (61 and 65 to be precise), Zegras is understandable.

It remains to be seen why a contract has not yet been signed between the two parties.

Earlier this week, Zegras even announced that he would not return to Anaheim until he had a contract in hand.

Does this sound familiar?

Yes, exactly, it brings to mind the William Nylander situation we followed at the start of the 2018-2019 season.

Nylander wasn’t getting along with the Leafs on his new contract, even after the season had started.

As a result, the Swedish forward went on strike and missed a good part of the season, as he still didn’t have a contract in his pocket.

Finally, Nylander signed his contract and joined the Leafs to complete the season, playing 54 games and scoring 27 points (seven goals and 20 assists).

As we noted at the time, Nylander didn’t fare too well in his return to the Leafs that season, having missed all of training camp and the early part of the season.

So, right now, Zegras and the Ducks need to remember that situation and try to avoid it.

It’s never a good thing to create such a conflict, especially not with one of the team’s star players.

Zegras wants to play and the Ducks want to see Zegras play, so a Nylander-type situation is definitely one to avoid.

However, if Zegras sticks to his salary and contract demands, he’ll have no choice but to hold out and risk missing training camp and maybe even a few games.

In short, I don’t think we’ll get that far, especially considering that the Ducks aren’t stuck to the salary cap, on the contrary (about $20 million under the cap).

All the same, it’s an issue we’ll have to keep an eye on.

In a gust

– Sweden eliminates defending champions USA on penalty kicks. Sweden will face Japan in the next round.

– The Netherlands will face Spain.

– Coming up.

– Great performance from Tsitsipas.

– Victory for Jake Paul.