We are heading down to the wire in the Nylander saga. A conclusion must happen by 5:00 pm ET this Saturday, or he will not be able to play in the NHL this season.

Every day there is more information coming out about where the negotiations are heading. Either a deal is extremely close, a trade is likely, or that this might be Nylander’s last year in Toronto, there has been a tornado of tweets about the situation.

Being the sensitive hockey fans we are, Pierre Lebrun tweeted something this morning that has set some people into a vat of curiosity.

The Maple Leafs' priority/hope is still to re-sign William Nylander but my understanding with that with just two days to go to the signing deadline, Toronto has circled back to some teams suggesting they put their best foot forward on trade offers… which makes sense

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) November 29, 2018

As he states, the priority is to re-sign Nylander – that’s good. But then he comes back to the rumours of a trade happening before Saturday because the two parties are too far apart.

It does make sense, Pierre. Dubas would not be doing his job if he wasn’t looking for trade partners if a deal is not done by Saturday, but he is cutting it extremely close.

Since Nylander would actually have to sign a contract with his potential new team that he’s traded to, a trade will most likely have to happen either today or tomorrow. It is still possible but seems off that he will find a fair trade this late in the several-month-long saga.

The worst possible outcome of this is if Dubas makes a panic trade because he is unable to re-sign the star forward. If it’s a fair deal that most fans can agree on – with the situation taken into consideration – then it is not as bad as it could possibly be.

We are rapidly approaching “Hall for Larsson” territory with the possibility of this trade. Some General Managers of other teams might take advantage, but I doubt that is truly what Dubas will succumb to. The possibility of Dubas accepting an unfair trade is far less than letting Nylander just sit for an entire season – why lose that asset for a minuscule improvement to the current team?

Bobfather Bobby Mac chimes in on the current situation as well.

The point here is that TOR is ringing the bell, last call for William Nylander trade offers. Soon after that, TOR will ring the bell on final contract offer to Nylander. He’ll either accept or reject. If it’s latter, TOR either trades him or let’s the deadline pass.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) November 29, 2018

As everyone has been saying for the past couple of weeks, there are still the three options out there – re-sign, trade, sit out. The chances of each individual possibility have been changing with every hour we get more updates, but now it appears that Dubas and co. will try and finalize some conclusion to this mess.

If they have a trade on the table and Nylander’s camp rejects their final contract offer, then I guess he’s headed to another team to try and get more of what he’s worth.

Whether Nylander is traded, re-signed, or sits out the entire season, we will all know the final decision within the longest 52 hours of our lives.