{"id":432756,"date":"2023-10-08T09:42:46","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T13:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=432756"},"modified":"2023-10-08T09:42:46","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T13:42:46","slug":"nhl-rumours-maple-leafs-2024-nhl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/10\/08\/nhl-rumours-maple-leafs-2024-nhl-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Toronto Maple Leafs and 2024 NHL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The start of the 2023-24 NHL season is almost upon up and that means plenty of NHL rumours. We&#8217;re a mere two days away from the start of play, but teams are thinking about the future. The cap number going up by around $5 million will give teams more room to play with. However, clubs will still have to manage their money carefully. NHL rumours aren&#8217;t just confined to teams as the league is also trying to figure out how to grow the game. Today&#8217;s NHL rumours focus on the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/10\/04\/2023-24-toronto-maple-leafs\/\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> and the location of the 2024 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>All NHL rumours come from the original source and are subject to change.<\/p>\n<h2>NHL Rumours<\/h2>\n<h3>Toronto Maple Leafs<\/h3>\n<p><em>Rumour: The Athletic&#8217;s Jonas Siegel took a look at a possible <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/marnemi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-10-08_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mitch Marner<\/a> extension among other questions.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">ICYMI: William Nylander is willing to keep contract talks going during the season \u2014 on one condition: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mmcnd9AWnk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/mmcnd9AWnk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jonas Siegel (@jonassiegel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonassiegel\/status\/1710663189195530643?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 7, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Analysis:<\/em> Marner is eligible for a contract extension on July 1, 2024. However, the talks <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/08\/23\/nhl-rumours-toronto-maple-leafs-future-with-william-nylander\/\" target=\"_self\">hinge on what happens<\/a> with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/n\/nylanwi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-10-08_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">William Nylander<\/a>. If the Swede doesn&#8217;t re-sign with the Leafs or is traded, this gives Marner more leverage. The former London Knights standout makes over $10.9 million per season and will probably get a raise.<\/p>\n<p>Marner has scored 30 goals and approached 100 points in each of the last two seasons. Nylander is trying command over $10 million it seems in his contract talks. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/matthau01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-10-08_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Auston Matthews<\/a> recently got an extension that will see him get $13.25 million until 2028-29. Marner will likely want to keep pace with these contracts.<\/p>\n<p>One other factor is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/tavarjo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-10-08_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Tavares<\/a> contract that also ends after 2024-25. The Leafs captain makes $11 million, but is approaching the end of his career. Tavares just turned 33 on Sept. 20, but may feel he has something left to give. Letting Tavares go or getting a hometown discount could free up some money to keep Marner around. However, general manager Brad Treliving will know more once the Nylander question is answered.<\/p>\n<h3>2024 NHL Draft<\/h3>\n<p><em>Rumour: TSN&#8217;s Chris Johnston said the NHL is exploring the option<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/insider-trading-could-next-year-s-nhl-draft-be-at-the-sphere-1.2017122\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> of holding the next draft<\/a> at the Las Vegas Sphere.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Analysis:<\/em> Johnston mentioned this on the latest edition of Insider Trading on TSN. The league said they&#8217;re exploring a number of options for the next draft. However, Johnston didn&#8217;t mention which places the NHL have looking at. Many NHL drafts are usually held at the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/06\/26\/last-words-2023-nhl-mock-draft\/\" target=\"_self\">home city&#8217;s hockey arena<\/a>, but the league could be taking a page out of the NFL&#8217;s playbook. The NFL has been holding big block parties for their drafts and they&#8217;ve gone over very well.<\/p>\n<p>The Sphere is one of the newest and premiere venues that cost $2.3 billion. Bands like U2 and others are going to play at the venue and have generated a lot of buzz. Booking The Sphere would be a massive win for the league, but both sides have to figure out the logistics.<\/p>\n<p>The draft will be in June, but the league usually has a venue figured out nearly a year in advance. Johnston said the league must really want the venue if they haven&#8217;t announced the location of the 2024 NHL Draft in October.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The start of the 2023-24 NHL season is almost upon up and that means plenty of NHL rumours. We&#8217;re a mere two days away from the start of play, but teams are thinking about the future. The cap number going up by around $5 million will give teams more room to play with. However, clubs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":139139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4321,4547,4548,18],"tags":[7840,229,6127,230],"class_list":["post-432756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rumours","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-leafs","tag-2024-nhl-draft","tag-mitch-marner","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-rumours","tag-william-nylander"],"modified_by":"Tommy Bennett","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}