Post 2013 Lockout Forward Tournament: Johnathan Huberdeau Versus William Nylander

[GlitchMarner]

Since the players involved are at different stages of their careers, the best way to vote is probably by answering this question: If I was a General Manager and I could draft one player for my team (having the knowledge that I have about each player at this point in time), which player would I choose?

Some are more accomplished than others and some have been more injury-prone than others, but under different circumstances, how different could things have been?



Jason Robertson (16-7 in votes - 69.6%)
Johnny Gaudreau

Matthew Tkachuk (17-2 in votes - 89.5%)
Kyle Connor

Sebastian Aho (15-9 in votes - 62.5%)
Mark Stone

Mathew Barzal
Filip Forsberg (28-2 in votes - 93.3%)

Johnathan Huberdeau
William Nylander

Tyler Seguin
Mark Scheiefele

Taylor Hall
Clayton Keller

Patrik Laine
Brock Boeser

Click to read more...

 

[biturbo19]

I feel like Huberdeau is going to be bludgeoned by recency bias in this one. But there was a time post lockout where he was a legitimate Art Ross contender caliber player. Willy having a "career year" still isn't even in that conversation. That ought to count for something.

 

[Buck Naked]

Huberdeau AINEC. 346 points in 286 games over a 4-year span and 4th in league scoring during that time. Nylander can't touch that.

 

[GlitchMarner]

Huberdeau AINEC. 346 points in 286 games over a 4-year span and 4th in league scoring during that time. Nylander can't touch that.

You're allowed to project as well in these polls, though.

Huberdeau has the better peak and prime so far, no doubt. But he also seems to have fallen off a cliff. I expect Nylander to be very good for at least five more years after this one. His athletic conditioning is good and he should be a productive player as long as he can skate and shoot. Even when he slows down physically, he should be a playmaking threat. He may become more like his father in playing style then.

 

[ALine]

I feel like Huberdeau is going to be bludgeoned by recency bias in this one. But there was a time post lockout where he was a legitimate Art Ross contender caliber player. Willy having a "career year" still isn't even in that conversation. That ought to count for something.

a time of … 1 year, he was a legitimate art Ross contender.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

went with Nylander based on the premise that I'm picking for my team -- could potentially play center and better goal scorer. In a vacuum it's much closer and I may go with Huberdeau. As mentioned above, recency bias will affect these results.

 

[Buck Naked]

You're allowed to project as well in these polls, though.

That make it closer, I agree. I still prefer actual over pretend though so I'm sticking with Hubs.

 

[biturbo19]

a time of … 1 year, he was a legitimate art Ross contender.

As mentioned above, it was certainly a lot more than that. There's a ~4 year window where he was 4th in scoring across the league. That's absolutely staying at the top and at least hovering around the Art Ross race to sustain that kind of multi-year sample.

 

[GlitchMarner]

As mentioned above, it was certainly a lot more than that. There's a ~4 year window where he was 4th in scoring across the league. That's absolutely staying at the top and at least hovering around the Art Ross race to sustain that kind of multi-year sample.

He was basically a top five level scorer, which is really good, but I don't think he ever had a real shot at winning the Art Ross. He was never going to beat Connor McDavid and he wouldn't really have had a shot against Kucherov in one of his best seasons, either.

 

[ijuka]

I'd say that Huberdeau has been the better player for all but two years of William Nylander's career.

Kind of surprising results considering that.

 

[ALine]

As mentioned above, it was certainly a lot more than that. There's a ~4 year window where he was 4th in scoring across the league. That's absolutely staying at the top and at least hovering around the Art Ross race to sustain that kind of multi-year sample.

But only had a real shot 1 year.

And his big jump in points came in his 25th year old season.

As did Nylander, but he could be in the middle of his big jump seasons. He is 3 years younger after all.
and Huberdeau will never get close to those again more than likely.

To vote Huberdeau you would have to assume nylander doesn’t have even just 1 truly monster season in him during his prime, and also assume he falls of a cliff even harder than Huberdeau has

I think it’s a safer vote to go with Nylander, rather than voting Huberdeau for his big 4 years only.