The Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander has been named to the World Championship All Star Team.
The Toronto Maple Leafs forward led all players with 18 points in 8 games and had a spectacular tournament. (IIHF.com).
Canada lost in the Finals, and Jonathan Tavares was injured before the tournament started (again, why was he there?) but at least for Leafs fans, there was some good news with the performance of Nylander.
Nylander joins Mark Stone, Jacob Voracek, Filip Hronek, Andrei Vasilevski and Mikko Lehtenon on the all-star team for the tournament.
William Nylander
After seeming to struggle this year with the Toronto Maple Leafs (and I say “seeming” because besides the low point totals, Nylander’s peripheral statistics were very good) this is a great thing for the Leafs going forward.
Nylander may not have lived up to his full potential this season, but with 18 points in eight games, he’s shown that he is still the super-star and franchise player the Leafs thought they were getting when they signed him to a six year contract extension.
Leafs Nation has a penchant for the undeserving whipping boy (see Gardiner, Jake) but the hyperbole that people have shown in attacking Nylander hasn’t been in any way realistic.
When Nylander was on the ice this year, the Leafs had over 50% of the shot-attempts, shots, scoring chances and goals. He was one of the league’s premier possession players, and figures to be so for the immediate future.
He is 22 and hasn’t even hit is prime yet, but he does have two 60 point seasons to his name. Also, to the best I’ve been able to find out, he is the only player in NHL history to match his 60 points from the year before while losing over 50% of his power-play points.
One season that was hurt by holding out and some bad shooting percentages shouldn’t erase the potential here.
As for the contract, it’s a new standard in the NHL that you pay players for what they might do rather than what they have done. Teams routinely pay group 2 free agents a bit more than they are worth today in order to secure their services for longer.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have Nylander locked up for an under-seven million cap hit for the next five years, and the Islanders are paying Brock Nelson six million for the same time. Nelson is five years older and has a career high in points that is eight less than Nylander’s.
This deal is already on the way to being team-friendly, and if Nylander can play like he did in this past tournament, the Leafs will be a team stacked with elite players.