Anyone Using David Pastrnak's Humility To Shame William Nylander Is A True Jackass

Pastrnak has no regrets re: contract: "If you (told) me when I was 15, I'd be playing for $6m a year (at) 22, I'd be like, 'I don't think you're saying the truth.' Just a dream come true. I'm happy for what I'm getting. I could be playing in Czech for a couple hundred a month."

— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) November 26, 2018

Look, I love that quote. It's almost impossible not to. Professional athletes that wholeheartedly appreciate getting paid handsomely to pursue their passion at the most prestigious level have always and will always strike a chord with those that weren't blessed with the god-given (and oft-forgotten, time-intensive) talent required to play a sport for a living. The humility David Pastrnak displayed in, more or less, admitting he's cool with getting comparatively hosed on his contract so long as it allows him to pay his bills by playing hockey is undeniably awesome.

It's just not at all what we should require from those whose earning windows, atop a field that's as physically and mentally demanding as it is objectively fun, close far quicker than those of the people crapping on them for being selfish and/or greedy by doing the inherently human act of looking out for their own wallet. I don't know that William Nylander is doing the right thing for his career by holding out, nor do I know that he deserves the dollar amount he's looking for, but I do know that he owes a team that knew his contract was up when they invested $77 million in an outside source of offense absolutely fucking nothing.

Putting the onus on a 22 year old kid to save your salary cap, as opposed to someone who has already been crowned as a prodigy of team building for one of the most distinguished organizations in all of sports, is absolutely laughable at best and willfully hypocritical at worst. William Nylander should milk the Maple Leafs for all they are worth, as they've basically abused his utters in pumping every ounce of protein out of a rookie contract that might as well have been paid in peanuts. To see it any differently just because one of his most prominent peers is still made giddy by the thought of playing his way above the poverty line is to view the situation through either royal blue lenses or the scope of a jealous jackass. Blame the talent all you want, but those that aren't one awkward hit away from having secured their last bag are getting paid a hell of a lot too, and it's their responsibility to figure out how to balance the checkbooks in best assembling it.