Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Most people who’ve watched the Toronto Maple Leafs in the better part of the last decade would tell you their most talented player is center and captain Auston Matthews. But with Matthews currently on the sidelines dealing with an upper-body injury, the Leafs have needed other core members to step up in his absence. And with due respect to elite right winger Mitch Marner, we believe Grade-A talent and right winger William Nylander has been Toronto’s most dynamic player thus far this year.
Nylander scored another highlight-reel goal Saturday against Montreal – his 11th goal of the season, putting him into a tie for the top spot (with Florida’s Sam Reinhart and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov) among all NHL goal-scorers this year. Nylander is presently on pace to post 56 goals this season – a number that would crush the 28-year-old Swede’s current career-best of 40 goals, which he’s posted in each of the past two years. And while the experiment to use Nylander at center didn’t last long, Nylander regularly looks engaged and energetic, and his ability to create space and time for himself and his teammates is among the best on the planet.
There have been legitimate criticisms of Nylander over the course of his 10-year NHL career. At times over the years, he’s lacked consistency and determination to excel at both ends of the ice, and Nylander has given his coaches numerous gray hairs when he’s been a passenger during games. But you rarely see that under new Buds coach Craig Berube, and Nylander now looks like he gets what’s being told to him by coaches and other members of the team. Nylander is a fixture on Toronto’s second line and first power-play unit, and while his $11.5-million annual salary (financial information via Puck Pedia) has ratcheted up expectations on him, he’s lived up to those expectations and he’s a cornerstone of the Leafs’ attack.
At times, Nylander still gets ahead of himself and turns the puck over – but he’s more responsible than some may give him credit for. Last season, Nylander was eighth on the Leafs in giveaways, with 45 – and this season, he’s tied for fifth on the Leafs with 13 giveaways in total. When he’s at his best, Nylander uses his elite speed, first-rate vision and top-level creativity to keep the puck in Toronto’s possession. And the older he gets, the more his confidence rises.
Almost equally important, Nylander happily accepts all that comes with playing in the fishbowl environment that is Leafs Land. As far as our memory goes, we’ve yet to see Nylander dodge the media after a Buds loss. For better or worse, he appears before the cameras and microphones day in and day out, and that type of leadership is what Toronto needs more of.
As you read this, Nylander is clearly in his prime, and he’ll be just as good in the next handful of years to come. The Leafs drafted him eighth overall in 2014, and if we were doing that year’s draft over again today, we’d pick Nylander to go third-overall behind Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl and Boston’s David Pastrnak. Nylander still needs to be part of team success in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but he’s improved every season, his shot is as dangerous as any player’s, and he understands what his role is with this Buds team.
Any way you cut it, Nylander is a bona fide superstar. Toronto needs him at his best as they try to stay near the top of the Atlantic Division, but he’s shown every indication he’s up to the challenge. Nylander’s best days may be yet to come, but even if he doesn’t grow his game beyond where it is at present, the Leafs will happily keep him as a foundational talent and a needle-moving competitor until further notice.
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