When William Nylander didn’t sign a new contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs until the very last minute in December, 2018 many fans felt the team highly overpaid the young forward. Nylander inked a six-year, $45 million deal worth a yearly average of $6,962,366 against the salary cap and then proceeded to score just seven goals and 20 assists in 54 contests over the remainder of the season.
If we fast forward to the current campaign though we see the 23-year-old is certainly earning his pay cheque. As of February 2nd, Nylander had posted a career-high 24 goals along with 23 assists for 47 points in 52 games. That placed him third in team scoring behind Auston Matthews’ 61 points and Mitch Marner’s 51. Nylander has served just eight minutes in penalties this year and his 18 even-strength goals ranked second on the team.
Nylander has achieved all of this while playing more than two minutes per-game less than Matthews per night and over three minutes fewer than Marner. Nylander’s game picked up following last season’s playoffs when the Leafs lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games and he headed to the IIHF World Hockey Championships. He led the tournament in scoring with 18 points in eight games ( 5 goals, 13 assists) and the confidence he gained there has carried over to the 2019/20 NHL season.
Supporters of Nylander feel he isn’t playing any differently this season but he’s finally scoring the goals he deserves. The main reason for this is due to his shooting percentage being a consistent 16.0 per cent which means he’s having more luck around the net. This is more than double last year’s total of 7.69 per cent while his career average is approximately 11 per cent.
He’s among the top Leafs in all scoring stats and has been silencing his critics by scoring most of his goals from the slot. In the past, he’s been accused of playing around the perimeter and being afraid to drive to the net. However, those claims have been proved wrong this season and in recognition of his fine play Nylander was named the Comeback Player of the year at mid-season by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association.
He started his career with back-to-back 61-point campaigns before last year’s disappointing numbers but that should have been expected since he missed the first 28 games. The winger was determined to prove to fans that last season was a fluke and he’s certainly been good to his word this year. Like several of his teammates, Nylander has also been much more effective since Sheldon Keefe replaced Mike Babcock as the team’s head coach in mid-November.
He recently scored goals in five consecutive outings and posted a string of 13 goals in 16 games. As long as he stays healthy down the stretch Nylander should easily set a new career high in points this season. If there is room for improvement it would be on the power play. Nylander’s already one of the better players in the league when it comes to 5-on-5 production and his numbers could easily grow with more contribution on the power play.
So far this year he’s scored six goals and seven assists for 13 points with the man advantage which isn’t too shabby. But as a rookie he posted 26 points on the power play to rank 13th in the NHL for forwards and first on his squad. Nylander managed just 12 points with the extra man in 2017/18 and just six last season. He’s on pace to rack up 20 points on the power play this year but if he can improve on that number next season he could easily become a point-per-game NHL’er.
At his young age and with added confidence, fans who were demanding the overpaid Nylander be traded last year have suddenly become quiet. And at an average salary cap of just over $6.9 million per season the Leafs may actually have a bargain with his contract. Only time will tell over the remainder of the deal, but Nylander’s certainly been on a hot streak so far in 2019/20.