Toronto Maple Leafs 2018-19 Player Grades
By James Tanner
William Nylander by James Tanner
It’s hard to grade Nylander, since he was out until December due to a contract dispute that has colored how Leafs Nation views him.
Nylander could have scored 40 goals upon his return to the lineup and it is clear that the fans were always going to give him a hard time. They’ll forgive him soon (people forget that Brendan Shanahan had not one, but two intense contract squabbles during his career) but for now, he’s a villain.
Which makes no sense. He’s only one of the three best players the team has drafted in forty or so years. Since Sundin retired, he’s was the third best player to suit up for the Leafs until they signed Tavares.
He’s a franchise player.
He’s tearing up the worlds.
B+. . RW/C. Toronto Maple Leafs. WILLIAM NYLANDER
He was the team’s best possession driver (despite his apparently bad season) as well as one of their best playoff performers (he was second on the team in 5v5 scoring vs Boston, and his line outscored the Bruins by three). One error repeated endlessly on TV has rendered these facts obscure, because people just remember that one give-away.
Oh well, he’s a millionaire who plays for the Leafs, is one of the best hockey players in the world, and he looks like a model – He doesn’t need to be popular.
In his supposedly terrible season, when Nylander was on the ice, the Toronto Maple Leafs had 56% of the shot-attempts, 54% of the shots, 57% of the scoring chances and 55% of the goals. (Naturalstattrick.com for this whole article).
When on the ice, Nylander and his teammates combined to shot just 7.6% which other than Kadri was the lowest on the team. His personal shooting percentage was 5.31%.
Those two numbers go a long, long way to show why Nylander’s point totals were so low this year. From March to the end of the season, Nylander played 18 games (almost a quarter season) and his P/6 was back up to first line level – 2.12 p/6.
Conclusively, beyond any shadow of a doubt, Nylander’s season was good and idea that it was not is media driven nonsense. He struggled to score because of bad linemates, lack of PP time, and poor shooting percentage.
Overall, he gets a B+.