Nylander’s Playoff Breakout

[Havoc]

Hopefully he's gonna be our 1RW with Matthews once Marners sent out so we need ppg+ from him and carrying the offense

Shouldn't be an issue. He's capable of 60-70 with second line usage. Point per game with first line usage should be a lock.

 

[Gabriel426]

He can be a 50pts regular season player for all I care as long as he scores 5 Goals in every 7 games playoff series along with being PPG in the playoffs.

 

[Pengu]

If anyone is going aftter this it will be Nylander.

 

[Havoc]

He can be a 50pts regular season player for all I care as long as he scores 5 Goals in every 7 games playoff series along with being PPG in the playoffs.

5 goals on Carey Price too. Bill is a Leaf for life.

 

[yubbers]

I think you're wrong here. Even if you forget about the fact that he was the only one of our forward "core" to actually produce (5 goals 3 assists in 7 games). Nylander did things that even he doesn't typically do. He threw some some nice hits and seemed to play on Turbo for most of the games.

Fair if you think we should sell high, but i'd say he isn't part of the problem. Always the last guy to leave the rink, always their for the optional skates, and while you're right he put up points against a team that wouldn't have normally made the playoffs, what does that say about Marner and Matthews who combined just barely beat out Nylander's total points for the series.

He really pissed me off coming back from holding out so unprepared. He's been much better the last season and change though. And clearly has the skill.

 

[Phion Keneuf]

If anyone is going aftter this it will be Nylander.

That would be stupid.

 

[saffronleaf]

Marner gtfo

Nylander + Matthews get one more Crack at it

If we fall next year I'll sell anyone and anything to get Connor Bedard and then make sure we have a management team that doesn't f*** up building around the guy.

They will fail next year, guaranteed.

 

[stickty111]

Look at Nylander here. You can't use the engagement criticism in this series. While Marner is doing flybys which is the exact thing people criticized Nylander about.

 

[Farsailor]

Tied for second in the league in playoff goals. He was a beast this series.

 

[ZEBROA]

The guy i was most uncertain about in the playoff.

 

[Dough72]

he does have some advantages over Matthews and Marner for playoff hockey. He is used to carrying the puck with his head up while Matthews prefers staring down at the puck to help with his toe-drags and stick handling. When the hitting starts Matthews has to tweak how he plays and use more of his peripheral vision to look for hits coming while Willie doesn't have to change a thing. And Marner is used to spinning and twirling and finding the open ice which tends to disappear in the playoffs, as well as cutting across the middle of the ice which is a lot riskier for your health in the playoffs. Nylander plays far more of a north-south type of game so the tighter checking and lack of space doesn't bother him quite as much.

 

[BodaciousBeefBazooka]

This isn’t a ‘look at the bright side!’ type thread when our feelings about the Leafs are valid rn, but..

He really did show up these playoffs after his linemate looked like his career got ended.

With his huge role in our wins this series and amazing production (5 goals, 3 assists), I hope the Leafs’s coach next year makes it a priority to give this man the ice time boost both on ES & PP that he deserves.

He will once Marner is out the door

 

[ER89]

He played well. Now is the time to sell high. He will never get another easier matchup in the playoffs.

Another classic trash take by you.

 

[34]

Best player in the ice for the Leafs all series! At $6.9M you KEEP HIM! He showed heart and battled.

Marner on the other hand. Pathetic! Get him and his annoying mom out of Toronto.

 

[Menzinger]

Thinking more about his play this morning...

Let's face it, he's almost certainly received by far the most public criticisms over the past few years (quite frankly from the time he was drafted). Be it from the media or from a group of the fan base that just doesn't like his style of play.

Despite all this he clawed back to bring his best effort in the playoffs and learned from his past mistakes. I just hope management recognizes this when making off-season planning. We should want/reward players who can handle that type of pressure and find a way to fight through it

 

[member 298589]

If Nylander is traded as a result of this series, I will stop following the team until the current management staff is gone.

 

[Mitch Matthews]

Buy low sell high...Willy at his highest value he will ever be or will he grow even more?

He's our best all round player - skating, shooting, passing, transition. He can do all four, unlike one trick ponies Matthews and Marner

 

[Mitch Matthews]

Thinking more about his play this morning...

Let's face it, he's almost certainly received by far the most public criticisms over the past few years (quite frankly from the time he was drafted). Be it from the media or from a group of the fan base that just doesn't like his style of play.

Despite all this he clawed back to bring his best effort in the playoffs and learned from his past mistakes. I just hope management recognizes this when making off-season planning. We should want/reward players who can handle that type of pressure and find a way to fight through it

Willy loves playing in Toronto and he showed in this playoff series that he wants to remain part of this team

 

[Bronxxx]

88 has earned his salary and the right to stay. 16 & 34 did neither. Adios.

 

[TMLAM34]

People saying Matthews should be traded are complete idiots.

 

[Clark4Ever]

Yep.

Unfortunately he likely seems easier to trade even though he shouldn't be touched first. Will come down to how serious of an offseason does the front office want.

The only thing that could be more embarassing than choking against the Habs would be to then trade our best player in the playoffs and best value contract of the big four.

 

[ZEBROA]

People saying Matthews should be traded are complete idiots.

specialy in the Nylander thread
Yeah trading Matthews is a big overreaction.

 

[Stonehands1990]

That would be stupid.

It would be terribly stupid and exactly what I expect from this franchise

 

[SeaOfBlue]

If he keeps his job after this......I can't even. But hey. MLSE was dumb enough to let a rookie run the team after drafting 1st overall so they're clearly not the sharpest crayons in the box. At least they got rid of those old guys.

Colorado was dumb enough to let a rookie Joe Sakic run their team.

Tampa was dumb enough to let a rookie Julien Brisebois take over for Steve Yzerman... And they won a Cup in Year 2 under him, something Yzerman was unable to do in his 10 years of rebuilding the Lightning (obviously Yzerman deserves a ton of credit; but he too was a rookie GM when he was hired).

Brian MacLellan was a rookie GM when he was promoted by Washington in 2014-2015. Won a Cup a few seasons later.

Vegas is run by Kelly McCrimmon, who is another rookie currently in his 2nd year as an NHL GM and has less NHL experience overall than Dubas.

Don Sweeney of Boston is a rookie GM.

Seems like a lot of good teams are pretty dumb by running with a rookie GMs, and all of them except Sakic took over good teams (Colorado was near the end of a rebuild when Sakic took over). Experience gives you chances to learn, but there are a lot of inept people with a ton of experience. Conversely, there are a lot of capable people who do not have a ton of experience. Literally everyone is a rookie GM at some point, so unless you want to run a small old boys club of GMs who rotate around from failure to failure, then you will have rookie GMs running teams.

 

[The Iceman]

I know smart when I see it and Dubas is flat out smart. I trust smart guys. What he lacked was the experience.

Timing also screwed the team over. Nobody saw a flat cap. Dubas assumed by now the contracts he handed out to the big 3 would be well down the list for most valuable.

If you don't think Dubas has improved the team each season you are not paying attention.