Drouin vs Nylander vs Ehlers

[TS Quint]

Well this reeks of recency bias based on ehlers start lol
Nylander by a hair although Ehlers is a very close 2nd. Drouin shouldnt be in the poll.

Pnumbers since last year including playoffs

Nylander: 35g/70pts in 81 games vs Ehlers 32g/71pts in 82 games

it would be fair to call this a draw

Now do P/60 over that time. That will help to show impact when each player is on the ice.

 

[The Podium]

Ehlers and Nylander are neck and neck with a slight edge to Ehlers.

Drouin is a distant 3rd IMO.

 

[Baksfamous112]

Poll should be as follow:

Ehlers 90%
Nylander 9%
Drouin 1% (for the biased Habs fans)

 

[The Podium]

Poll should be as follow:

Ehlers 90%
Nylander 9%
Drouin 1% (for the biased Habs fans)

What makes you say that?

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Ehlers and Nylander still haven't separated themselves from each other. I'll take Ehlers for the better contract and metrics at this point.

EDIT: Another note is that Nylander had 12 more points this past season on the powerplay. If Ehlers was used on PP1 their point totals likely wouldn't be close.

correct me if im wrong but wasnt PP1 Matthews, Marner and Tavares?

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Poll should be as follow:

Ehlers 90%
Nylander 9%
Drouin 1% (for the biased Habs fans)

They are pretty even players imo. how is Ehlers like 90% better than Nylander?

 

[Stuzchuk]

Nylander is a bit more talented that Ehlers offensively but Ehlers 2-way game is far more superior to Nylanders game... Ehlers it is

 

[1specter]

Nylander is a bit more talented that Ehlers offensively but Ehlers 2-way game is far more superior to Nylanders game... Ehlers it is

False. Nylander is a very intelligent 2-way player and has great positioning. Where he has faltered in the past has been inconsistencies in effort, but he seems to have shored that up over the last year. His defensive awareness though is good, to say Ehlers is far superior is just a lie.

 

[Baksfamous112]

What makes you say that?

they have similar offensive skillset but Ehlers forechecks, puck/board battles and defensive game is much more complete than Nylander.

They are pretty even players imo. how is Ehlers like 90% better than Nylander?

offensively, yeah. Rest of their game isn’t even close. If the poll was to rank both players offensively then I agree, they’re pretty close but if its their overall game, they are not in the same tier.

 

[1specter]

they have similar offensive skillset but Ehlers forechecks, puck/board battles and defensive game is much more complete than Nylander.

Again, false. You literally have no way of proving this either, the "Nylander is a big floating softie" narrative has been outdated for at least a year now.

Nylander is also one of the top players in the league over the past year in net front goals, so this idea of him being a perimeter player isn't accurate at all.

 

[The Podium]

correct me if im wrong but wasnt PP1 Matthews, Marner and Tavares?

Last season:

Nylander - Matthews - Tavares
Marner - Rielly

This season they split it into 2 units with Nylander with Tavares and Matthews with Marner and Rielly

 

[Arthur Morgan]

they have similar offensive skillset but Ehlers forechecks, puck/board battles and defensive game is much more complete than Nylander.

Yeah that still doesnt make him 90% better. your numbers are biased as hell

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Last season:

Nylander - Matthews - Tavares
Marner - Rielly

This season they split it into 2 units with Nylander with Tavares and Matthews with Marner and Rielly

I recall seeing Matthews, Marner and Tavares playing on the PP1 last season too. maybe they split them up at times

 

[The Podium]

I recall seeing Matthews, Marner and Tavares playing on the PP1 last season too. maybe they split them up at times

They were, Marner plays point on the PP

 

[Baksfamous112]

Again, false. You literally have no way of proving this either, the "Nylander is a big floating softie" narrative has been outdated for at least a year now.

Nylander is also one of the top players in the league over the past year in net front goals, so this idea of him being a perimeter player isn't accurate at all.

That still doesn’t make his forecheck, puck battle/board battle player and defensive awareness better. Ehlers is just the better overall player. If it makes you feel better, they both have a similar offensive skillset.


I’m not saying he’s 90% better. I’m saying the poll should reflect that 90% of people should choose Ehlers over Nylander as an overall better hockey player

 

[1specter]

That still doesn’t make his forecheck, puck battle/board battle player and defensive awareness better. Ehlers is just the better overall player. If it makes you feel better, they both have a similar offensive skillset.

You literally just keep throwing this out with no proof lol. Do you think someone just gets net front goals by standing there and doing nothing else? To be in that position requires plenty of board/puck battles and forechecking. What a stupid thing to say.

Nylander is also one of the best Leafs this season in terms of limiting shots against, scoring chances against and has one of the lowest expected goals against as well. Comparatively, Ehlers is just okay in these areas, and is middle of the pack on his own team. The Jets are also a mediocre possession and scoring chance team this year and one of the worst teams in the league in terms of allowing high danger chances.

Also Nylander has bulked up a decent amount and has a larger frame than Ehlers, and is harder to knock off the puck. He's been doing a good job in puck battles and his performance reflects it.

 

[Baksfamous112]

You literally just keep throwing this out with no proof lol. Do you think someone just gets net front goals by standing there and doing nothing else? To be in that position requires plenty of board/puck battles and forechecking. What a stupid thing to say.

Nylander is also one of the best Leafs this season in terms of limiting shots against, scoring chances against and has one of the lowest expected goals against as well. Comparatively, Ehlers is just okay in these areas, and is middle of the pack on his own team. The Jets are also a mediocre possession and scoring chance team this year and one of the worst teams in the league in terms of allowing high danger chances.

Also Nylander has bulked up a decent amount and has a larger frame than Ehlers, and is harder to knock off the puck. He's been doing a good job in puck battles and his performance reflects it.

Then why Nylander isn’t doing more PK work or being on the ice when you have to protect a 1 goal lead at the end of a game?

 

[1specter]

Then why Nylander isn’t doing more PK work or being on the ice when you have to protect a 1 goal lead at the end of a game?

He doesn't need to, we have plenty of other depth players who can take up those minutes, or other players who are paid way more (Marner) who need to do it all to earn their contract. What we need from Nylander is to play heavy 5v5 minutes and control the ice at even strength, and be a play driver. Keefe leans heavily on our big 4 (Matthews, Tavares, Marner, Nylander) at 5v5, so those other depth guys eat up PK minutes and defensive minutes to keep our big guns fresh.

 

[Baksfamous112]

He doesn't need to, we have plenty of other depth players who can take up those minutes, or other players who are paid way more (Marner) who need to do it all to earn their contract. What we need from Nylander is to play heavy 5v5 minutes and control the ice at even strength, and be a play driver. Keefe leans heavily on our big 4 (Matthews, Tavares, Marner, Nylander) at 5v5, so those other depth guys eat up PK minutes and defensive minutes to keep our big guns fresh.

See, the thing is Ehlers also does all that plus PK work & keeping a lead at the end of the game. On top of that, he’s got a better motor/puck battle skill than Nylander.

Now you fully understand what my point was. No knock on Nylander, Ehlers is simply a more complete hockey player.

For what its worth, I have also been saying for the past two years that Connor is a better hockey player than Laine because he’s more complete and have a better motor. Some (a lot) of people disagree with that opinion.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

The clear difference between Ehlers and Nylander is Ehlers does not depend on the power play as much as Nylander does for his production. He is a superior ES player, to me it is much harder to produce at ES than on the PP. Production and plus minus differential favour Ehlers also. The stats would bare this out over the last 3 seasons sampling, not a small sample for those concerned of sampling size.

ES stats this season on going

Ehlers 10 pts 11 games. +9
Nylander 7pts, 11 games +1
Drouin 7 pts, 11 games +6

Without counting PP Production.

19-20
Ehlers 53 pts, +14, 71GP .75 P/GP
Nylander 42 pts, -2, 68GP .62 P/GP

18-19
Ehlers 30 pts, +2, 62GP .48 P/GP
Nylander 21pts -2, 54GP .39 P/GP

 

[The Winter Soldier]

See, the thing is Ehlers also does all that plus PK work & keeping a lead at the end of the game. On top of that, he’s got a better motor/puck battle skill than Nylander.

Now you fully understand what my point was. No knock on Nylander, Ehlers is simply a more complete hockey player.

For what its worth, I have also been saying for the past two years that Connor is a better hockey player than Laine because he’s more complete and have a better motor. Some (a lot) of people disagree with that opinion.

Not to mention Ehlers was signed to 6M for 7 years, 8% on the cap. Cheaper and a year longer than Nylander's 6,962,366 for 6 years at 8.76% on the cap. Ehlers ES efficiency and contract ticks more boxes in his favour IMO.

 

[JetsWillFly4Ever]

I think Ehlers is clearly better than Nylander at this point, even if just by a small amount, but I can admit I am biased. He's the Jets best 5v5 player by far and I think he could easily be over a point per game if he was on PP1.

Drouin isn't even in the same league as the other two though.

 

[Critical13]

Right now, I go Nylander=Ehlers > Drouin.

Drouin's GF% is absurd right now. Willy has the easiest zone starts.

I think what separates Ehlers and Nylander from Drouin is that they have much more lethal shots. Over the last 3 years, they maintain the same sh% gap you see below.

Nylander the only of the 3 with more primary assists than secondary this year, but historically, Drouin is the better creator.

This is only looking at the small 11 game sample size this year, everyone loves a hot take based on a small sample size

5v5:

All Situations:

Zone starts, All situations:

Box score, All situations:

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

Ehlers pretty easily

 

[Menzinger]

I think Ehlers is clearly better than Nylander at this point, even if just by a small amount, but I can admit I am biased. He's the Jets best 5v5 player by far and I think he could easily be over a point per game if he was on PP1.

Drouin isn't even in the same league as the other two though.

This is a week out of date, but I think one would be hard pressed to make a case theres a significant gap between the two when it comes to 5v5 scoring