Matthews may not have been 100%. Even if he was 100%, I like his chances of bouncing back over Nylander's. Matthews has proven to be a game changer and hence why he slots with Eichel, Tavares and some say McDavid while Nylander slots with Ehlers.
Then what are your thoughts on Nylander winning rookie of the month twice and in a crucial moment when it was looking like we were going to get beat for the wild card? Take Nylander away from this team and we don't enjoy playoff hockey two seasons ago. A non-game changer can do that? At that age!??!??! He was just leaving his teens.
You are confident given the WHOLE picture, Nylander is not a core, game changing piece? What about when he's in his prime around 25-26? You're willing to throw that away because of one bad series when he was still basically a kid? In years he's an adult yes, but within the realm of strong grown athletes around him, he is very much still a kid.
What about guys like Malkin who disappeared at the same age because they were to young to handle the full NHL grind + playoffs. Would you have the same thoughts on Malkin?
I don't think you would. You would justify why it's okay Malkin disappeared. Simple google shows you pens swept 4-0 by Sens. Malkin played horrible. There were news articles out how the grind got to him.
Boston is a cup contending team. If Nylander at his age was able to walk circles around the big bad bruins, he'd have went 1/1 in his draft and would be a generational player.
He's elite but not generational and definitely capable of being shut down by a cup contender in the playoffs, especially when our best player is hurt. That's why you need solid veterans like Marchand and Bergeron.
Take away Pastrnak's veterans and he gets shut down 10/10 times by other teams. I'd take my odds letting the rest of the Bruins go 1 on 1 with the rest of the team as long as I know Pastrnak is getting smothered. We wouldn't even be discussing this guy so much on our forums if we replaced Marchand and Berg with two other 20-21 year olds instead. We'd have swept that team and went straight to the Bolts.
What do the Leafs finally have? They went and found themselves their own veteran all star in Tavares.
We now have our Bergeron/Marchand in Tavares/Matthews(see above where I said generational talent can count) and our Pasta's in Marner and Nylander.
Bergeron and Marchand still need their Pasta's to win no? Or are you going to even claim Nylander can't produce even if he was on Berg/Marchand line?
You are too harsh on Nylander in my opinion. Harsh because your view on him is biased and not willing to use any sort of context.
Don't know what else to say. We'll agree to disagree and leave it at that.