Tribute William Nylander Discussion Thread: Ya Gotta Be Blessed Edition

[Carltons Cup]

Keep Willy.

Trade Matthews

 

[Gabriel426]

We know Willie will have ups and downs.
Willie will also be soft and hard.
But man Willie being hard is what gets Leafsnation excited.
Maybe putting Vintage with Willie will prolong being hard.

 

[Teeder Keon]

I freakin' man-love this guy.

Good for you man
I support you on your journey

 

[Maple Leaf]

Styles

 

[Twine Tickler]

We are watching 2017 IIHF world championships MVP Willy f***ing Nylander right now. Absolutely dominating presence on the ice right now, on both ends of the ice to boot. He is truly a special player when he plays this way, and truth be told he’s played this way for a long time now. I don’t see him looking back any time soon

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

 

[HellasLEAF]

All that gym work paying off he has a great stride and giving lots of effort on the ice. Stronger on the boards.

 

[MattySnipes]

He's the oldest out of the 3 amigos. Makes sense at about 24-25ish he's taking that role. I love it.

 

[Menzinger]

Almost as if these young guys still develop (including the mental part of their game) up until their primes....

 

[cupcrazyman]

Keep Willy.

Trade Matthews

I'd trade Marner before Matthews.

 

[cupcrazyman]

 

[BlueAzN]

Nylander's been really good this year. Made big strides, and is definitely one of those upper echelon 2nd liners.

 

[TheKrebsCycle]

Nylander's been really good this year. Made big strides, and is definitely one of those upper echelon 2nd liners.

Hed be a 1st liner on about 90 percent of teams.

 

[BlueAzN]

Hed be a 1st liner on about 90 percent of teams.

Lmao, yeah okay bud. Nah, he's good enough to play first line, but he's ideally a 2nd liner on a cup team kid.

 

[MattySnipes]

Over 6ix years ago.

 

[ZEBROA]

Lmao, yeah okay bud. Nah, he's good enough to play first line, but he's ideally a 2nd liner on a cup team kid.

He could take Marners spot on the first line any day and do great. I dont want him to, but he could. I want to belive that Leafs are a cup team.

 

[ZEBROA]

Hed be a 1st liner on about 90 percent of teams.

Right now , we need to add. He has not been great all season. First 25games or so... not fantastic.

 

[meefer]

*Nylander ranked 33 in the league at 2.976 points/60 all situations.
*2.576 points/60 even strength to rank 45th in the league.
*While he ranked 112th in PP time/G at 2.25 m/g, he ranked 74th in PPP/60 at 5.333 points/60, usually on the 2nd unit that 'on paper' has less talent and is coached a structure that did not have great success this year.
*While no Selke candidate, his defensive game has grown considerably, as has his compete level on a game to game basis. I am not referring to simply playoff games against the Habs.
*With a 12.8 shooting %, he is tied with Mitch Marner at 70th in the league for forwards, just ahead of Matthew Barzal, Patrice Bergeron, John Tavares, David Pasternak and Clayton Keller.
*With 42 points he ranks 60th overall for forwards while playing in 51 games, those 51 games seeing him tied at 170th for games played by a forward. The forwards who scored more points playing less games: Nathan McKinnon, Artemi Panarin, Alexander Barkov, Max Pacioretty, David Pasternak, Blake Wheeler, Nicolai Ehlers, Tomas Hertl, Vincent Trochet and Roope Hintz. Non of these players had a TOI under Nylander's usage. The closest, Ehlers, averaged just under 20 seconds more/game, Barkov averaged more than 4.20 seconds more/game (with MacKinnon just under 4 min more).
*He does these things while ranking 142nd for forwards in TOI/G sitting at 16.36/g.

William Nylander is producing at the rate of a 1st line forward, and a very good one at that.

 

[Farsailor]

Nylander has the smallest amount of ice time per game out of the top 43 players in playoff points. Maybe he could play a little bit more?

 

[Svanstrom]

I had this same thought last night - he's doing this without Tavares. Impressive!

I said after game one that if this is playoff Willie going forward, that's huge for us. Now he's kept it up for two more games which really bodes well for the future.

And remember, on top of that he's booked for 5 point with only ONE of them being a PP goal while "only being a PP specialist." Amazing

 

[Dayjobdave]

Imagine a world where you’re playing your arch rivals in a playoff series where if you lose the chirping will be endless.

Imagine 2/3 rods of the second line goes down.


Then the third member of that line torches the rival for a goal a game, really propelling your team to a stranglehold on the series.


that’s where the kid from Calgary got us.

 

[ZEBROA]

If he get a goal next game i will quit my dayjob and start a carrer in whatever.

 

[al secord]

He's so hot right now

 

[Auston 316]

Right now , we need to add. He has not been great all season. First 25games or so... not fantastic.

Lol

 

[Twine Tickler]

I think the way willy is playing right now is exactly why he is such a polarizing player. He has the ability to put himself in the same conversation as Mitch and Auston. But up until the last month or 2 he hadn't. He is one of the most exciting players to watch when he is playing like this. Every shift he is the hardest working guy on the ice. Major credit to Willy, guy took his lumps from his critics and literally skulled f***ed them with his on ice performance. Him and JT were electric the last month and a half. Willy is stepping up in the way that superstars do in the face of adversity. He loses his star Centre, and now he is driving the play on his own. That's not to dog gally or kerf, they've been excellent as well, but Willy is a man on a mission right now. Extremely hard to beat our team with 2 lines performing at that level. Not to mention unbelievable tertiary scoring from vintage