- Apr 27, 2005
- 33,736
- 30,060
Throwing out his first 19 games where he only had 3 points, he's still only put up 5g 23p in his last 31gp. That's a 60p pace - slightly worse than what we saw from him during his first 2 full seasons.
I'm not arguing he'll be markedly worse than he was during his ELC, but I do wonder how much better he will become? He's definitely still got the ability to dominate a game, as we've seen, but I think many (myself included) thought he'd be able to elevate to elite status.
I still think that he put on a bit too much muscle and has lost some of his quickness as a result. And given his preference to play on the perimeter, I think it's impacted a big part of his game.
Side note - Toronto was 20-8-0 before Nylander, but have won only half of the 50 games they've played since Nylander joined the lineup. I'm not for sure saying Nylander is at fault for that as I don't catch every leaf game, but for a team as talented as Toronto that's quite awful.
I'm not arguing he'll be markedly worse than he was during his ELC, but I do wonder how much better he will become? He's definitely still got the ability to dominate a game, as we've seen, but I think many (myself included) thought he'd be able to elevate to elite status.
I still think that he put on a bit too much muscle and has lost some of his quickness as a result. And given his preference to play on the perimeter, I think it's impacted a big part of his game.
Side note - Toronto was 20-8-0 before Nylander, but have won only half of the 50 games they've played since Nylander joined the lineup. I'm not for sure saying Nylander is at fault for that as I don't catch every leaf game, but for a team as talented as Toronto that's quite awful.