seventieslord
Student Of The Game
Hold on, where are we getting "Marner can move back in the lineup?"
Nylander has played with Matthews his entire career, and it's been well documented that the Tavares signing was predicated on playing him with Marner. Why would that change now? Or is VanIslander suggesting that Nylander gets Tavares and Kasperi Kapanen stays on Matthews' right wing? Because that would be a weird suggestion.
I think he might be suggesting Marner moves off the first PP unit in favour of Nylander.
And, I don't think that happens. Marner has been lights out on the PP since halfway through last season. He may be its most important member. If you want to load up the first PP with "the big 4" and Rielly, then it's Kadri who moves.
Marner doesn't need the powerplay to get his points though. He's got one even strength point per game this season so far. In his career, he's got ten more ESP than Nylander does in the same number of games, and Matthews has points on four of the same ES goals Marner does. Nylander has shared contributions on goals with Matthews 43 times.
Marner is a year younger, has never had the benefit of a Matthews (yes he has Tavares this year), yet is outscoring Nylander at ES so far in their careers. (I only bring up his age because his "trajectory" is still likely to be pointing further upwards than Nylander's right now, if only slightly)