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William Nylander appreciation thread

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At this point we only really need Willy and Matty up front .. JT is nice to have a top end slow 2C but not for 11M .. and 10.9M for a slow passing winger is just not in da cards .. JT at 9M and Mitch at 8M AAV and it would be fine as we could use that AAV to pick up a top 4 D
 
PromisedLand said:
Willy has been the most improved Leaf in the past couple years. Willy Styles is bringing it pretty much every night.

Matthews wasn't going offensively, they put Willy there and Matthews starts producing.

JT wasn't going well offensively for a bit, Willy goes there and JT starts producing.

Leafs PP was a f***ing JOKE!; Willy gets to the left/right wall -> starts making plays and shoots the puck and BOOM Leafs PP is alive all of a sudden.

Without Willy Leafs would be lost IMO.

It guts me to see Willy's playmaking/shot ability getting wasted on the Leafs PP. Keefe needs to man the F up and put Willy on the left/right wall.
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Yeah I could see Nylander having an untapped playmaking game but he's pretty good at both scoring and facilitating so just let him flow. From a style and skill POV he really reminds me of a Peter Forsberg with some of the power skating and stickhandling smoothness without the nastiness and hitting, along with that high end puck control and slipperiness of a Patrick Kane. He can really stickhandle in a phone booth and the game looks so easy for him. I'm not saying he's got the potential to be those players. But I'm also not saying he doesn't have it in him to be an absolute superstar.
 
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Oscar Peterson said:
What's funny is that WAR and GAR stats available at the time already evaluated Nylander to be a ~7 million dollar player based on his first two seasons, and it was pretty clear that he still had a lot of room to grow as a player (and I was very confident he would)
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dubas played hardball to get a fair deal from nylander (today it's a bargain, but at the time of signing it was just fair). didn't really do that with the other RFAs tho.
 
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Oscar Peterson said:
I agree, and that's always rubbed the wrong way as someone who's favourite player is Nylander

Always felt like Babs didn't really treat him fair either
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agreed. It was interesting when Keefe became coach, he made it a point to send the message to Nylander that it is a 'big 4' and he's one of the 'big 4'. Looks like Nylander is taking the opportunity and running with it.
 
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saffronleaf said:
agreed. It was interesting when Keefe became coach, he made it a point to send the message to Nylander that it is a 'big 4' and he's one of the 'big 4'. Looks like Nylander is taking the opportunity and running with it.
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Yeah, he really seems like the kind of player who needs to feel important to play important. He's always been amazing on the international stage and we've finally been seeing it recently.

I will say the one thing with Nylander, is that when he has a bad game, he plays VERY badly, but thankfully those have been few and far between lately. Can't wait to see what he brings in the playoffs this year.
 
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TheProspector said:
I think he'd do very well with these (remember - he put up 0.6ppg as a rookie while making f***ing Colin Greening put up 0.5ppg and looking like a decent NHLer in the last year he ever got to play in the bigs).

But it's also hard to really want to separate Tavares with Nylander. The whole seems to be worth more than the parts.

But maybe you try to revive Marner by putting him back with Tavares, and you have a 3-headed beast. Leafs have such an amazing roster this year that they can try all kinds of things. I would like to see more experimentation. But they are winning without having to try changing anything up, so I am guessing we'll probably be seeing more status quo. I'd personally like to have some more options on the table so that the coach has more tools he understands and trusts come playoff time. I think playoffs reward flexible and dynamic coaching.
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Seasons are long enough that it makes sense for coaches to try these sorts of combos instead of keeping things stagnant. I'm always wary of Keefe's loyalty to his people, especially with how last year played out: not only were the Leafs were tied for 2nd worst in the NHL for shorthanded goals allowed, 5 of the 7 shorties were surrendered in the second half of the season. One might argue that the flaccid PP twss was a big reason for their loss in the playoffs. Why was nothing done for half a season? Keefe could've tried moving the PP mainstays but he stayed put.
 
cookie said:
Seasons are long enough that it makes sense for coaches to try these sorts of combos instead of keeping things stagnant. I'm always wary of Keefe's loyalty to his people, especially with how last year played out: not only were the Leafs were tied for 2nd worst in the NHL for shorthanded goals allowed, 5 of the 7 shorties were surrendered in the second half of the season. One might argue that the flaccid PP twss was a big reason for their loss in the playoffs. Why was nothing done for half a season? Keefe could've tried moving the PP mainstays but he stayed put.
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He’s more flexible than Babcock. Of course, that doesn’t say much. But I think Keefe also might be feeling his oats more as he gets more experience and confidence in the bigs.
 
Had an off game against the Avs, responded well today. Good to see. Toss up between him and Jack for MVP
 
He's actually impressed me a lot lately.

He wanted to have a better playoff after being disappointed in his previous ones and delivered.

He wanted to take on a leadership role this year and be more consistent...he is doing that for the Leafs this season.

I then think about the other Canadian boy who seemed like an immature brat at the post-season presser and shake my head. Especially considering he's had 0 goals in last 18 playoff games and 0 playoff goals in last 2 calendar years. He didn't challenge himself to improve on anything, his shot is still a muffin and not really living up to his contract this season.
 
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3rd on the team? Matthews clear 1, probably Marner 2, go ahead and argue, probably ahead of Jt and Reilly? Could argue Reilly
 
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