A report in Aftonbladet today reveals that William Nylander is still in Sweden, training with a skating coach and one other Swedish player who is looking for a contract somewhere.
The skating coach is Jocke Ahlgren, and you can see him here working at the Master Card Centre a couple of years ago:
Nylander was asked if he watched last night’s game.
Did you see the premiere of Montreal?
“No, but I saw highlights from the match in the morning. These were great goals. I want to play, but now it’s the way it is. But I want to stay in Toronto.”
And then later, when they were leaving, the coach spoke:
”But they miss a star,” says coach Jocke Ahlgren, when he and William wander away from their parked cars to go to the day’s training session.
Yes, William can only wait right now, but he has read about other Swedes who have been in the same situation and have been waiting for their new contract a good deal of time into the season.
”Yes, both Rickard Rakell and Hampus Lindholm were in the same position that year. I do not know exactly how long they had to wait.
Rakell and Lindholm signed on the 14th and 27th of October in the World Cup-delayed season.
Now we are writing on October 4, and William Nylander hopes for the same happy end.
Otherwise, then? Can there be games in Europe while you wait?
”I have not thought about it, but at the moment, I only have the focus to keep me prepared for the day everything gets clear. I just drive on and let’s see what’s happening.”
— all quotes are cleaned up Google translations from the original.
It’s unlikely that Nylander would ever play in a European game while negotiating the contract, but the fact that he hasn’t moved back to Toronto says that this process is not going to be resolved in a few hours once they come to an agreement.