Devils shouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole

Yeah, teams always trade 21yr old top 6 wingers for rentals. Brilliant.

I get the hype with Mercer but rn whose the better player Nylander. If he extended with NJ this would be a very bad move for Toronto as while Mercer is good hes not on par with WN yet

No one is saying Mercer is better, but to have zero foresight that you can get Mercer on a long term deal in his prime at a rate so much lower than Nylander's UFA price is why the Devils are in great cap position and teams paying UFA rates are not.

Toronto can also lose Nylander for nothing next summer, because of such a cap hell....

Read the description....

Hell no.

Yeah I don't think you're improving as much as you think longterm and I think that there's a ton of potential for Mercer's next deal to be a steal. Longterm I'm relatively confident that Mercer will be nearly as good if not slightly better than Nylander and I don't want to mess with team chemestry/familiarity. Also, Mercer brings a hard nosed style that this team needs but Nylander does't have. Not to mention I love Mercer's attitude and Nylander seems to have a much worse and individualistic attitude. All of that matters when building a team since championship teams aren't just powerhouses but teams that play well together. You can collect all the talent you want but if they can't play well together, it doesn't matter. As Herb Brooks said, "It's not about the best players, it's about the right ones."

No way. The Devils will be paying a premium for Nylander as he's declining away from his prime all the while Mercer could be locked up on a value deal throughout the Devils competitive window
In 3-4 years time chances are that Mercer is the outright better player between the two, and the Devils wouldn't even be halfway through their window yet at that point in time.