It doesn't matter who's on the ice when Nylander is on the ice. Nylander has proven to be our best transitional player and best zone entry guy which is why his possession numbers are much better. He played with Matthews when they were rookies and Nylander didn't really get crazy amounts of ice time and Matthews still scored 40 goals.
He is a proven 30 goal scorer. He scored 31 goals in 68 games and then 17 in 51. He's doing this with limited PP time too because they have Marner playing in the wrong spot on the PP and run it through him which has made our PP terrible. Matthews and Marner haven't done anything together that Matthews and Nylander didn't do. Only thing that got better was Marners possession stats to be honest. Matthews has always been a 40 goal scorer and the year before the season that just finished he wasn't playing with Marner the entire season because Babcock had them split up. Matthews was still on a 50 goal pace without Marner and had like 16 goals in 28 games or something like that and stayed on that same pace with Marner after they got put together. Matthews has become a top 5 player because he was projected to become one when we drafted him. Marner didn't turn him into a top 5 player, Matthews did that himself by being the best goal scorer in the NHL. Also, playing 1 of those seasons in the division we got to play in last season probably helped those numbers quite a bit. Our division was quite the joke imo and we still couldn't win a playoff round in that division.
No he makes dumb plays quite a bit which is why it's noticeable because he's trying too hard to make those wow plays to please fans I guess and get a nice little YouTube highlight video at years end. I'm not saying he lacks hockey IQ but to say his is way higher than Nylanders is just not true at all. Nylander has all the creativity that Marner has, the only difference is that Nylander knows this isn't junior hockey and you can't get away with doing that all the time. Nylander is also a threat with his playmaking and shooting ability while Marner is just a playmaking threat.
You go and say that Marner improved by 25 points by natural evolution as a player but try and say Matthews became a top 5ish player after playing with Marner. Kept up this production in 2 seasons that were shortened seasons because of Covid and 1 season where we had a bunch of teams that probably would've struggled to make the playoffs in a regular NHL season. The having a kid isn't really an excuse because he only started that season out slow and also had a wrist injury but finished with 26 goals still and a PPG pace pretty much.
You really expect me to go off what these networks say? They don't really know much and pick favourites and just hype them up. I would love to see these guys on these networks become GMs and build a team around Marner instead of Tavares. Lets see how well that team performs. High end Centers will always be more valuable than wingers. We tried building around a pretty elite winger before with Kessel and look how well that worked out. We put Marner and Tavares on the trade block I bet you we get a better return for Tavares then we would Marner. Only thing Marner has on Tavares is age and Tavares was much more dominant at Marners age too.
Your just running around making excuses for why Tavares and Nylander haven't produced at the level marner has.
Matthews scored 40 goals which in itself is irrelevant. Look at the evolution in his overall production. He went from being 20th in the league in point and 28th I believe in ppg to top 5 and top 7 in pts and ppg while being with Marner. Not all of that is being attributed to Marner. Matthews is a franchise talent himself and the best talent in leafs history at the moment. Still playing with a top 5 winger makes his production jump and overall play sustainable and likely as he has a dynamic wing option that neither JT(if playing the wing) or Nylander are able to offer to him.
Nylander isn't a proven 30 goal scorer. 17 in 51 is worse than Marner who had a 30 goal pace versus a 27 for Nylander. Nylander is a mid 20s goal player he hasn't shown to be a 30+ guy outside of one outlier season. Marner and Nylander are both heavy playmaker and neither are much of a goal scoring threat. Nylander had a great playoffs but he's been a ghost in multiple series in the past as well and hasn't been on the scoreboard very often either outside of the series vs MTL.
You fault the PP on marner alone which is idiotic considering that the PP was incredibly staked and had several different options being utilized. None of the players were able to figure out what was wrong nor could the coaching staff. Nylander hasn't displayed much prominence in the role marner plays on the PP outside of 2016-2017 and isn't a good fit to touch the puck as often due to his worse vision and lower capability as a cross ice passer. Marner has been part of several strong PP units in his career.
Your making excuses for Tavares poor 2020 season and using his wrist injury but ignoring that Marner outplayed him heavily in a bigger role in 2020 with a more severe and impactful injury. 2020 JT was the worse JT we've seen. He actually bounced back bit this year and demonstrated his ability to serve as an offense catalyst instead of blowing opportunities set by his linemates.
Centers are constantly overrated and people assume due to them having heavy transitional responsibilities that they are the most important player on the line/team. Kucherov for instance is better than anyone in the game outside of 97, panarin is another top 8 player better than a wide variety of elite Centers. Tavares isn't an elite puck transitioner and isn't a overly defensive player. He's good in the offensive zone and creates chances but he doesn't have the ability to play a shutdown role and provide elite offense. He's not Matthews who produces at a very high level while being above average constantly in his own zone.
Marner is relied by Keefe/Babcock the most as he's the most versatile player who can break the game apart at all states. He's an elite PKer, generally a good PP player and an elite EVS player. He generates chances and even better creates tangible chances which end up at a high rate in the net. Refer to his OISH% and see how he has maintained a level the very elite of the league are able to keep.
Marner isn't at that level quite yet but he isn't far off. He simply needs to up his production in the playoffs and he's going to be a perennial top 3 winger in the game and top 10ish player.
Tavares is long past his prime. He's moving closer to dropping out from being a 1C. Next year is probably is final season as a quality 1C before we begin to transition him to wing as his game gets slower and he becomes increasingly more predictable for opposing defenses to defend
