Can you imagine how good the Maple Leafs would be if William Nylander were on the team?

That’s kind of the joke making the rounds among executives of rival teams, who aren’t all that heartbroken that one of the NHL’s most potent offences remains without a potent offensive player.

At last report, Leafs GM Kyle Dubas had gone to Europe to meet with Nylander and, if nothing else, assure the unsigned winger he did not intend to trade him. Nylander was working out with Austrian hockey team Dornbirner EC on Friday.

“He seems fine. (He) has fit in real good with our guys,” Dornbirner coach Dave MacQueen texted The Star. “Jumps into drills when he can. Goes out early to do some stuff on his own. Goes to the gym before and after practice.

“We are providing an opportunity (for him) to keep training and he seems very appreciative.”

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With the Leafs off to a 6-2-0 start the season, Nylander’s bargaining power seems smaller and smaller.

The Star talked to four rival team executives: Two from the East, two from the West. They were given anonymity because to talk about another team’s player would be considered tampering. Their impressions of the talks were the same.

“William Nylander is not worth what William Nylander thinks he’s worth,” said an executive from the Western Conference.

“The Leafs are right,” said an Eastern Conference executive. “There is no way any team in the NHL is going to pay Nylander $8 million.”

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There’s no offer sheet coming to save the day, either. No one wants to pick a fight with the financial might of the Leafs, fearing one of their own would be poached in retaliation. And the money just doesn’t work for anyone, said the second Western executive.

That alone should be gut-check time for Nylander, his agent Lewis Gross, and his father, Michael, who is also an active part of the negotiations. Calls and text messages to Gross were not returned.

“I know Michael from his playing days, and he has a different view of what is right,” said the second executive from the West. “But how much is enough?”

It’s believed Nylander is asking for $8 million a year on a long-term deal, and is rejecting the idea of a short-term deal. It’s believed the Leafs are offering $6.5 million a year on a long-term deal and are open to a short-term deal at a smaller number.

“At $6.5 million, I don’t think he’d be underpaid,” said the second executive from the East.

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“Lots of people are blaming the agent, the father,” said the first executive from the East. “The kid is 22. He should be able to figure it out.”

Nylander dropped down the Leafs’ depth chart the moment the Leafs signed John Tavares. The Nylander camp knows big paydays are in the works for both Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.

Leaf president Brendan Shanahan has pleaded publicly with Nylander — and the rest of his core — arguing that winning is more important than money, so taking less to stay together is a better team equation than taking more and forcing the team to shed talented players with big-money contracts.

The Nylander camp is worried the Swede would be the first to go, though defenceman Jake Gardiner — an unrestricted free agent this summer — could also get caught in the crossfire.

In an ideal world, said all the executives, the Leafs would sign Matthews first and all others would fall under. But there’s no incentive for Matthews to sign. He may as well see what kind of year he’s going to have before his camp decides on what his value might be.

Most prognosticators see Nylander in the same light as Winnipeg’s Nikolaj Ehlers, or Boston’s David Pastrnak, or Detroit’s Dylan Larkin — all signed in the $6-to-$6.67 million a year range after they came off their entry level contract. They are “comparables” in the world of contract talks — the same age, roughly the same NHL experience and point production.

The problem for the Leafs, the other executives say, is Leon Draisaitl’s $8.5 million-a-year deal in Edmonton.

“The player’s agent, family, are worried about getting leapfrogged in a short amount of time by Marner, and Matthews,” said one of the Eastern executives. “(The Leafs) are using comparables in the market place. The player side is saying Draisaitl didn’t have comparables in the marketplace. He just took less than (Connor) McDavid, who also had no comparables in the marketplace.”

What’s gummed it all up is the fact that players coming off their entry-level deals have no arbitration rights. Nylander needs one more year to earn that right.

The idea of withholding arbitration rights until later in a career was to give NHL teams the power to keep salaries low on second contracts, giving the player little leverage other than to withhold his service.

But so many young players over the years beyond Nylander — Nick Ritchie, Johnny Gaudreau, Ryan Johansen, PK Subban, Andreas Athanasiou, Josh Andersen — have had issues, that maybe it’s time for all restricted free agents (and teams) to have arbitration rights.

“It’s one of the oversights of the collective bargaining agreement,” said the Eastern executive. “People thought teams could control their players. But the oversight is this: When you don’t have arbitration rights, you now don’t have any control as soon as entry level (deals are) done.

“If Nylander had arbitration rights, the team would already have brought him to arbitration.”

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