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Can the William Nylander Holdout Affect the Columbus Blue Jackets?

By William Espy |
TORONTO, ON - APRIL 23: William Nylander #29 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates with the puck against the Boston Bruins in Game Six of the Eastern Conference First Round in the 2018 Stanley Cup Play-offs at the Air Canada Centre on April 23, 2018 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Bruins 3-1.(Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** William Nylander
TORONTO, ON - APRIL 23: William Nylander #29 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates with the puck against the Boston Bruins in Game Six of the Eastern Conference First Round in the 2018 Stanley Cup Play-offs at the Air Canada Centre on April 23, 2018 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Bruins 3-1.(Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** William Nylander

William Nylander is holding out from signing with Toronto, but will this affect the Columbus Blue Jackets in the future?

The Columbus Blue Jackets will have a lot of restricted free agents after this season and as a result watching a restricted free agent holdout occur around the league may not be ideal for Jarmo Kekalainen and company.

According to Capfriendly, The biggest restricted free agent this off-season will be Zach Werenski who is undoubtedly going to demand a massive raise from his entry level deal. Ryan Murray is a bit of a question mark going forward, no one besides management knows what’ll happen with him after this season.

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Anthony Duclair will ask for and earn a raise after this season if his play continues to keep up at the rate it has been. Sonny Milano is an unknown like Murray as he’ll likely get a low paying bridge deal unless he can have an amazing season, which seems unlikely based on the sample size so far.

Joonas Korpisalo is also a restricted free agent, which will be interesting depending on what happens with Sergei Bobrovsky.

With those, and even more restricted free agents after this season it’ll be hard to imagine one doesn’t hold out for a bit. If William Nylander is successful with his holdout in Toronto, it’ll cause the Columbus Blue Jackets to have to overpay a RFA simply because the precedent has been set around the league.

If Nylander is unsuccessful and that sets the precedent, then it’ll be great news for the Blue Jackets as it’ll show their players that has a holdout can damage a player financially as well as hurt their reputation.

The other way this could potentially affect the Blue Jackets is if they trade for the dynamic winger. He has potential to be the next Artemi Panarin level player, however if Toronto doesn’t want to pay him then Columbus certainly would.

Next. Artemi Panarin on Pace to Shatter Records. dark

With holdouts around the league becoming an annual occurrence, it’s only a matter of time before it affects the Columbus Blue Jackets significantly.

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