News Article: NHL season preview of the Toronto Maple Leafs

[ORRFForever]

Don't wish your life away. Enjoy September.

Good point.

 

[Sypher04]

If he's playing with Matthews all season, gets PP time and doesn't hit 30, it'd be pretty embarrassing.

Why? Marner played with Tavares all season, got PP time and didn't hit 30, and it's almost unanimously agreed he had a terrific season. Both Nylander and Marner are playmakers first and foremost playing with elite shooting centers.

 

[Sypher04]

I seemed to remember Nylander playing on the 4th line last season. The only reason he wasn't there more often is because they are paying him 7M.

I don't know where Babs will play him, but he didn't do himself any favours last season being out of shape. I hope he learns from that. If he comes to camp in shape this season then perhaps he'll get 50 points.

Last year had nothing to do with being out of shape. Not in the sense you are using it. He wasn't.

He wasn't at game shape. Players have talked a ton over time about not being able to workout simulate being in games. He played catch up in that regard, but he was never out of shape.

Nylander is one of the more fit players on our entire roster.

After that, the stats show he was doing most of everything that made him successful his first two years just not getting the bounces often. Didn't help that babs basically buried him and never gave him a real shake to move up the lineup

 

[Ciao]

50 points is not terrible.

A lot of players peak in their rookie season. There's an endless list of them.

The main board has a discussion going on about that very subject right now.

I haven't seen that thread.

Who are some of those guys that jump out a you?

 

[Nithoniniel]

I haven't seen that thread.

Who are some of those guys that jump out a you?

The reason a lot of people peak in their rookie season is that most players enter the league at an age where they are most likely at their best offensively. At that point, they are just as likely to have a career year due to variance as any other year.

Nylander is just now reaching that age, and nothing in his previous years stand out as a sign that they'd be career years for that reason. The opposite if anything.

So while quite a few players peak as rookies, there are reasons why it happens and those reasons don't really apply to Willy.

 

[cookie]

I feel 30 goals for Nylander isn’t out of the question. Why not.

Last three seasons his shooting percentage has been below average, he just needs to adjust from always picking corners (and mostly missing) to a more “get the puck on net” mentality. Also drive the net for rebounds, with Matthews there will be a ton of juicy ones.

I would think being a right shot winger playing right wing limits the amount of net he can shoot at. Play him at center or left wing and his heavy/laser of a shot becomes that much more of a threat.

 

[Nylanderthal]

It’s a far stretch to say Liljegren is going to be a top pairing guy. Not saying he can’t be just it’s a lot to ask a kid to be playing 22 mins a nite against the oppositions top players.

This is a trade I would like to see

TML
Nylander

CBJ
Nutivaara
Jenner

Cash wise it’s almost a wash, save a little but it provides us with cost certainty for 3 years. A little more size and grit in both players. Nutivaara is a solid defensive D man who will but up 20-25 and is under 3 million. Plus we get two players for the price of one.

CBJ get a dynamic player who can play PLD wing.


TML D Corp
Reilly Nutivaara
Dermott Barrie
Sandin Liljegren

The number would work with Barrie at 8 million per. Unfortunately we would have to expose Dermott at the expansion draft if we sign Barrie. Not something I would be willing to do.

Eeeeeewwwwwwwww

 

[ULF_55]

perhaps the best opportunity since I watched a winning team in 1967.

we have to demand they play to win every shift.

 

[MagicalRazor]

Nylnader will for sure crack 70 Points this year i'd bet on it like legit

 

[67Leafs67]

biggest hole for the Leafs is defensive play

2016-2017
Leafs 9th worst in goals against
Capitals: best in the league in terms of GA

2017-2018
Leafs 20th worst in goals against (huge improvement)
Boston: 4th best in GA

2018-2019
Leafs 12th worst in goals against (serious decline by 8 spots from the previous season - how much of that was Sparks?)
Boston: 3rd best in GA

Leafs need to play well defensively there is no other way to put this. Leafs kryptonite is playing against teams that are very good defensively. all the corsi and the other BS mean absolutely NOTHING!!! Goals and Production matter and DEFENSE matters!!! GF% matters!!!! corsi, xGF and other BS can get the F out

Leafs need to play well defensively or else they are going to be out again in the first round - may be not even make the playoffs. Leafs defense IMO is terrible

I totally agree. Especially now that Toronto has expended a huge % of the cap hit on their offensive stars, Matthews, JT, Marner, & Nylander, the top end of their roster is offense heavy. That's fine, because the way the market is structured, it is offense that pays, not necessarily overall value. But that means Toronto needs to fill the cracks with defensively sound guys. We need more guys like Kerfoot & Hyman, who have solid defensive impacts, playing lower in the lineup, to balance out our offense heavy top end of the roster.

 

[67Leafs67]

If he's playing with Matthews all season, gets PP time and doesn't hit 30, it'd be pretty embarrassing.

Would it be? Marner played almost 20 minutes a night, with John Tavares, and was a fixture on the first unit PP, and hit 26 goals, and nobody thought his season was embarrassing. I doubt if Nylander even gets that much ice next season.

 

[Thissiteisgarbage]

Would it be? Marner played almost 20 minutes a night, with John Tavares, and was a fixture on the first unit PP, and hit 26 goals, and nobody thought his season was embarrassing. I doubt if Nylander even gets that much ice next season.

3rd year pro playing with one of the best centres in the league making 7 million or whatever....30 goals would have to be a reasonable request of him.

 

[jrgtml67]

Who's fighting for backup goalie? Hutch and Neuvirth?

 

[TimeZone]

3rd year pro playing with one of the best centres in the league making 7 million or whatever....30 goals would have to be a reasonable request of him.

So if Nylander puts up 75 points but only 25 goals you'll be disappointed?

Interesting.

 

[Thissiteisgarbage]

So if Nylander puts up 75 points but only 25 goals you'll be disappointed?

Interesting.

I think you're taking it to extremes. I'm saying he should be hovering around the 30 goal mark at least

 

[Nithoniniel]

I think you're taking it to extremes. I'm saying he should be hovering around the 30 goal mark at least

It's possible. He's changed his game around a bit to get more shots off and from closer to the net, which should lead to some extra goals.

He's never really been a goalscorer though. It might surprise people, but through most of their careers so far, he's been less prone to shoot than Marner. And we all think of him as a playmaker first and foremost.

 

[TimeZone]

I think you're taking it to extremes. I'm saying he should be hovering around the 30 goal mark at least

I think you took it to extremes when you said it would be an embarrassment if Nylander didn't score 30 goals this Season.

He's a playmaker first and foremost.

 

[DarkKnight]

Nylander gets a complete clean slate with me this year. Let’s see if he can put it all together, because if he does we are beyond scary offensively.

 

[7even]

I think you took it to extremes when you said it would be an embarrassment if Nylander didn't score 30 goals this Season.

He's a playmaker first and foremost.

I wouldn't call him a strict playmaker. He's an opportunist, perhaps more so than anyone else on the team. Playing with Matthews, the correct play is going to be dish it more often than not, but Willy can f***ing rifle corners.

 

[TimeZone]

I wouldn't call him a strict playmaker. He's an opportunist, perhaps more so than anyone else on the team. Playing with Matthews, the correct play is going to be dish it more often than not, but Willy can ****ing rifle corners.

He has an excellent shot, but when it comes to a specific style he's been more successful with his playmaking at this stage in his career.

Like you said, that's likely to continue playing with Matthews, Willie's vision is something special though.

 

[Mr Hockey]

I think you took it to extremes when you said it would be an embarrassment if Nylander didn't score 30 goals this Season.

He's a playmaker first and foremost.

Willie is a shooter/playmaker, he likes to score and fire the puck, imo

 

[TimeZone]

Willie is a shooter/playmaker, he likes to score and fire the puck, imo

He's had the majority of his success dishing Matthews the puck to date.

 

[Mr Hockey]

He's had the majority of his success dishing Matthews the puck to date.

yea Willie is also an elite passer with great vision, but he likes to fire the puck too

 

[LeafChief]

I am a Nylander detractor. I want to believe Nylander can get to 50 points again. I don't ever see him getting to 60 points, and he will probably never score 30 goals in this league.

Soft/

perimeter NHLers don't have enough push in their game to score 30 goals. Matthews can get 35+ goals because of his wicked shot and his size.

 

[Stephen]

The reason a lot of people peak in their rookie season is that most players enter the league at an age where they are most likely at their best offensively. At that point, they are just as likely to have a career year due to variance as any other year.

Nylander is just now reaching that age, and nothing in his previous years stand out as a sign that they'd be career years for that reason. The opposite if anything.

So while quite a few players peak as rookies, there are reasons why it happens and those reasons don't really apply to Willy.

Nylander's skillset also shows you it's not like he was fluking those 60 point seasons. He was perfectly capable of producing at that level. It didn't look particularly difficult.

Looked like Phil Kessel's first year in Toronto. His numbers were pretty bad relative to the hype but you knew he was going to do much more.