Marner is better than Nylander, yes. No argument there. But it's closer than it looks right now and as long as Nylander gets crap opportunity he'll never be able to prove how high his ceiling really is.
Marner:
- Plays with Tavares
- Plays 20 mins a night
- Plays PP1
Nylander:
- Plays with Marleau/Brown/Kadri
- Plays 15 mins a night
- Plays PP2
Nobody in their right mind can expect Nylander to truly prove himself with usage like that. He's playing exceptionally well right now and can still barely keep his head above water while Babs throws him anchor after anchor.
Is Babs still holding the holdout against him all these months later? Very spiteful if its the case.
Marner initially played with bozak/jvr
then
he basically carried both marleau/kadri
marner's stats going back to January of last year is in elite category
nylander and matthews always played together for the first two seasons; yet nylander's production did not see any improvement in the 2nd season while matthews produced at a higher ppg clip.
Marner is a special player; while nylander is a good player.
the way i see it is babcock is basically saying...
Marner is driving his line (yea fine JT plays with him)
Matthews is suppose to drive his line
Nylander is suppose to drive his line
this way you will have three elite players driving their lines while JT/Marner take tough match ups
marleau-kadri-kapanen line would make kadri the main guy driving that line
personally i don't mind the lines the way they are; if leafs are chasing the game down by a goal or two then I want babcock to stack the lines and go for the win instead of being status-quo
when leafs are chasing the game i would definitely like to see
hyman-tavares-marner
johnsson-matthews-nylander
moore-kadri-kapapnen