Nylander vs. Larkin

[Nizdizzle]

I'd prefer not to see skewed results in this poll...

... So it should be noted that both @axman15 and @slimbob8 voted "Impartial voting for Nylander" and upon viewing their profiles are clearly Leafs fans.

Look at these "impartial voters":

• The Winter Soldier
• WetcoastOrca
• PatriceBergeronFan
• Hugh Mungus
• ManitobaKid
• pettersson

Both sides have folks stuffing the ballots.

 

[TakeTheBody]

I'm a Leafs fan saying who cares? Both teams are very happy with really good young players. I'm not going to disparage Larkin he's really good. As is Willy. What's better cake or cookies? Win win.

 

[Realgud]

I think Nylander is more creative and less reliant on his speed, but Larkin is such a workhorse who plays C, is great on faceoffs, is just as good offensively while playing with subpar teammates, and is probably more effective defensively.

I think it's close in term of player abilities, but I think Larkin is the player you want if you want to win important games (good example for others, hustle, clutch, captain material...).

In a way, I see Larkin being more effective from 20 to 30, and Nylander from 30 to 40. Larkin relies on his speed a lot but did improve his passing, shooting and offensive creativity, so if he keeps improving these, he could surprise me and be an effective player even when he's older.

In the end, I'm a wings fan voting Larkin but I try to stay objective and realize Nylander has tons of potential too but seeing the insane progress of Larkin firsthand since his draft year is something that I can't ignore.

 

[garyturner3]

It's a tossup for me. It's tough to compare the players this season because obviously Nylander hasn't played. Scoring is up across the board and I have no doubt Nylander will be at or around a ppg after the season is over just like Larkin is right now so I'm basing my comparison mostly on the last two years. Similar offensive numbers with the edge in goalscoring going to Nylander. He also puts up the same numbers while playing more than 3 minutes fewer a game than Larkin so if I had to pick the better offensive player it's definitely Nylander. Larkin's a C and kills penalties so those are huge advantages in his favor though. So like I said...it's a tossup but I'd probably go with Larkin if I had to pick.

I am however a Leafs fan and am voting in the impartial category. I see there's a lot of debate in this forum over that and I agree with the posters that think splitting the polls up into team X voting vs team Y voting is nonsense. It's just another way to discredit Leaf fans. That impartial list is full of the typical biased Leaf haters that would find a way to justify Frans Nielsen over Nylander if there was a poll for that.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Both drafted in 2014. Nylander had some early success and Larkin has stepped it up in his development. Who's better?

Question...Does your poll also factor in that Larkin is signed to a 6.1 cap hit, Nylander at .896M + more at 6.96 per?

 

[IPS]

Nylander, no hesitation.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Congrats @WingsMJN2965 your franchise player is probably as good or slightly better than our 5th best player.

I would certainly expect so. If you’d followed hockey at all for the last couple of decades the Wings have been a very good team with not many high draft picks.
The Leafs?

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Nylander, no hesitation.

Shocking! And no hesitation even!

 

[Critical13]

Look at these "impartial voters":

• The Winter Soldier
• WetcoastOrca
• PatriceBergeronFan
• Hugh Mungus
• ManitobaKid
• pettersson

Both sides have folks stuffing the ballots.

PatriceBergeronFan is at least sometimes reasonable. The others are pretty obvious in their motivations.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

PatriceBergeronFan is at least sometimes reasonable. The others are pretty obvious in their motivations.

Oh the irony!
Critical, Holymakinaw, IPS and Hollywood North.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Oh the irony!
Critical, Holymakinaw, IPS and Hollywood North.

When you know the player is a better all around player, plays as the #1 Center for their team, is signed to a much better contract, it is predictable that bias card is played by the usual suspects here because they have nothing else.

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

Nylander, no hesitation.

wat

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

Absolutely every NHL executive, scout, coach, etc would take Dylan Larkin. This is just ridiculous

 

[WetcoastOrca]

When you know the player is a better all around player, plays as the #1 Center for their team, is signed to a much better contract, it is predictable that bias card is played by the usual suspects here because they have nothing else.

Yep. They think the Leafs should win every poll just because they have one of the top teams. I’ve voted for the Leaf player in lots of polls but having a top team doesn’t mean that every player on the team is better than every player on every other team.
I’m confident that if you asked 100 objective hockey people who they’d take between Nylander and Larkin at least 90 of them would pick Larkin. The only reason we need the Leafs fan option is to weed out the usual suspects who I listed who pick Leafs in every poll.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Look at these "impartial voters":

• The Winter Soldier
• WetcoastOrca
• PatriceBergeronFan
• Hugh Mungus
• ManitobaKid
• pettersson

Both sides have folks stuffing the ballots.

Clean up your own act before calling out others.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Yep. They think the Leafs should win every poll just because they have one of the top teams. I’ve voted for the Leaf player in lots of polls but having a top team doesn’t mean that every player on the team is better than every player on every other team.
I’m confident that if you asked 100 objective hockey people who they’d take between Nylander and Larkin at least 90 of them would pick Larkin. The only reason we need the Leafs fan option is to weed out the usual suspects who I listed who pick Leafs in every poll.

Anyone that voted Larkin would not be wrong. Frankly I don't one valid reason that says this is an outlier vote. Larkin plays Center, is a harder player on the puck, has 13 goals and 17 assists in 32 games thus far as the #1 C in Detroit, and he is signed to a better contract than Nylander. He is also talked about as future captain for the Red Wings, Nylander is never in the conversation for a letter. There is no justification for playing a bias card on this one for the majority of people that voted Larkin in this poll.

 

[WingsMJN2965]

Because I refuse to ever select the "team x fan voting" options in any poll. They're completely pointless IMO and you only see them in polls involving the Leafs. All it does is suggest that Leaf fans are incapable of making an unbiased vote so the rest of the fans can simply ignore the leaf option when evaluating the results. Which is ridiculous because for each biased Leaf fan that will vote the Toronto option no matter what, you've got a biased Leaf hater that will vote the non Toronto option no matter what. It all evens out so just exclude those pointless options to begin with. It's not accomplishing anything.

But either way, thanks for wasting your own time to dig through all the poll results and keeping these forums safe from Leaf fans possibly picking the wrong option! I know I'll be able to sleep better at night knowing you're watching over things.

To Leafs fans credit, they're the most well represented fan base on the board...

... That's why you always see it in Leafs polls. Separate the homer votes from the impartial votes.

 

[La Masse]

Larkin pretty easily. Better contract, better all around player. Just loved this recent OT winning goal off of a Tavares give away.

Had to get that JT dig in eh? Tavares seems happy for once. Guy is going to get alot of points with Magic Mitch.

As for the poll Larkin is the correct answer here. Its still early in both guys careers so nothing is set in stone but Larkin looks like the superior defensive player

 

[34]

Larkin

 

[SuperScript29]

This season Larkin is making a case to be 3rd best player in his draft behind Pastrnak and Draisaitl, but it's still early, and if I remember correctly, this poll was done like two years ago with the results going the other way.

 

[slimbob8]

To Leafs fans credit, they're the most well represented fan base on the board...

... That's why you always see it in Leafs polls. Separate the homer votes from the impartial votes.

That's my point though. You're not actually separating the homer votes from the impartial votes with this strategy. If all Leaf fans simply voted for the Leaf option no matter what and all non-Leaf fans voted impartially then it would be separating them I agree. But in reality there's just as many biased leaf hating votes going in the impartial section as there are homer Leaf votes going in the Leaf section so it accomplishes nothing and evens out in the end. All it does if force people to open up a calculator to add up the totals. If you're judging poll results by excluding the Leaf fan votes then you're not judging it accurately.

 

[Menzinger]

The idea that anyone on here is an “impartial voter” is fairly laughable

 

[that is unfortunate]

This season Larkin is making a case to be 3rd best player in his draft behind Pastrnak and Draisaitl, but it's still early, and if I remember correctly, this poll was done like two years ago with the results going the other way.

I have him at #3 , I think the only players clearly better than him are Pastrnak and Point, not a fan of Draisaitl personally.

 

[The List Of Jericho]

I would hope so considering you've as many top 10 picks in the last 6 years as we've had in the last 30. You can thank @The List Of Jericho for the absurd commentary on the Point/Nylander thread.

The peak truly was how Drai is nothing special without McDavid and yet he has consistently outproduced Nylander with Matthews.

If you would have actually looked into the advanced metrics....Draisatl without McDavid amounts to a player that barely cracks 50 points. Someone made a nice thread about it...snoop around.

 

[The Red Line]

I'm Nylander, voting for Leafs fans.