Toronto Maple Leafs: 5 Storylines of Success This Past Season
William Nylander
As a restricted free agent entering the 2018 offseason, William Nylander was clearly not prepared to re-sign for anything less than he felt was fair.
The whole league was watching, as it took up until almost the last possible minute of the December 1, 2018 deadline for Toronto and Nylander to reach their deal. Had an agreement not been made in time, he would have been ineligible to play the rest of that season.
It was a six-year contract valued at over $45,000,000. By the time it was signed, half the season had already passed. But it was done, which meant he was able to return to play.
Perhaps it would have been better if he did miss the remainder of that 2018-19 schedule, after all.
| Scor | Scor | Scor | Goal | Goal | Goal | Goal | Assi | Assi | Assi | Shot | Ice | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Tm | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | EV | PP | SH | GW | EV | PP | SH | S% | ATOI | BLK | HIT | TK |
| 16-17 | TOR | 81 | 22 | 39 | 61 | -3 | 32 | 13 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 22 | 17 | 0 | 10.7 | 16:01 | 16 | 25 | 59 |
| 17-18 | TOR | 82 | 20 | 41 | 61 | 20 | 10 | 15 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 34 | 7 | 0 | 10.9 | 16:41 | 18 | 21 | 68 |
| 18-19 | TOR | 54 | 7 | 20 | 27 | -4 | 16 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 5 | 0 | 5.4 | 15:31 | 14 | 16 | 28 |
| 19-20 | TOR | 68 | 31 | 28 | 59 | -2 | 12 | 22 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 20 | 8 | 0 | 15.7 | 18:13 | 14 | 9 | 42 |
Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
He had earned 61 points through 81 games in 2016-17 and 61 points within 82 contests through 2017-18. It would be putting it lightly, to say that his 27 point total playing in 54 games upon his return throughout 2018-19 was a disappointment.
A less than spectacular season, especially for a player who chose to wait as long as he did to get back into the game, making a statement about what he felt he was owed to play it.
With a fresh start upon this team for 2019-20, no player embraced that opportunity more than Nylander did this past year. He scored 31 goals and 28 assists for 59 total points throughout 68 contests in this breakout year, producing at a pace of 0.87 points per game.
Nylander nets his 30th of the season#LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/CkJaRsrVCy
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 7, 2020
William Nylander successfully rebounded from his worst professional season to date. With four years remaining on his current contract, scoring more than 30 goals per season will certainly help prove his value to this organization.