William Nylander cashes two goals, nears new contract in Leafs win

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The Maple Leafs return from the land of milk and honey rich in points, while William Nylander appears closer to his long-awaited multi-year payday.

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Nylander’s two goals and three points in Toronto’s 4-1 win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday set the stage for him signing a new contract in the next few days.

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As Toronto swept all three California stops on their trip for the third time in five years, leading scorer Nylander added his 20th and 21st goals and an assist.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported during the match that Nylander’s camp and general manager Brad Treliving are nearing agreement on an eight-year deal, with an average annual value around $11.5 million US, which could be announced when the club returns.

“We’ll see,” the coy Nylander told reporters in San Jose after the game in response to the Sportsnet story.

“That would be a dream to stay here and play for such an organization. I call Toronto home.” 

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The term and dollar figure would put the 27-year-old first-round pick in 2014 among the NHL’s best-paid players and second on the team’s salary chart to Auston Matthews next season.

The Leafs certainly would want to get this long-discussed deal done before it distracts from the all-star game that is three weeks away, with Nylander potentially voted in by fans to join league selection Matthews.

To summarize the trip, the Maple Leafs beat Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Jose by a combined 9-2 score, with goaltender Martin Jones stopping 81 of 83 shots. The surge kept them within seven points of division-leading Boston, five back of runner-up Florida with Toronto having games in hand on both.

Nylander, who scored off the rush with a nice release inside the post and a bank from behind the net, also helped on Mitch Marner’s first-period goal. That’s seven seasons of 20 or more goals for Nylander.

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Fellow Swede Calle Jarnkrok added his second goal on the trip, while Jones turned aside 23 shots in his old home at the SAP Center.

In his solid fourth consecutive start, Jones benefitted from some wonky accuracy from wide-open Sharks before Toronto outshot them 18-3 in the first period, after getting the same amount on Lukas Dostal in Anaheim on Thursday. The Leafs also rang three posts — yet took a 1-0 lead on Marner’s power-play marker.

On just the Leafs’ second 5-on-3 of the season, Marner found the short side on Mackenzie Blackwood, his 40th career man-advantage goal. Morgan Rielly’s primary assist was also his 30th overall this year.

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The Sharks, who broke Jones’s shutout bid with eight minutes to go via Mikael Granlund, came into the match trying to break their second 10-game losing streak of the season.

Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe made no lineup changes from Thursday, which included Pontus Holmberg staying on the third line with Jarnkrok and Max Domi, whose hustle to negate an icing set the stage for Jarnkrok’s 10th goal, assisted by Holmberg in place of the idled Nick Robertson.

“We’ve been pretty darn good defensively here,” Keefe said of the shot blocks, gap control, boxing out, faceoff win percentage and many other vital details that have reversed what was a late December slump. “(It’s) now five games in a row that the volume of what we’ve given up has been quite low.”

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The Leafs complete a back-to-back versus San Jose on Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena. That’s something which has never happened, even when both were in the Western Conference in the 1990s. The injured Logan Couture, long a thorn in the Leafs’ side, could be back from injury for the Sharks.

Jones, who ranks second in Sharks’ career wins to Evgeni Nabokov, could be ready to go again next week, as Keefe and Treliving will assess where Ilya Samsonov is at versus looking at Dennis Hildeby for his first NHL start. The veteran Jones now has a record of 7-3-0, a welcome addition in light of injuries to Matt Murray, Joseph Woll and Samsonov’s breakdown in December.

Winger Noah Gregor made his return to San Jose on Saturday after not being offered a qualifying contract offer by the Sharks and taking the long way back to the NHL via a PTO with Toronto at training camp.

lhornby@postmedia.com

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