Toronto Maple Leafs: William Nylander Off to Hottest Start of Career
Tuesday night Toronto Maple Leafs superstar William Nylander notched his fifth goal of the early season to extend his point streak to six games to begin the year.
The Toronto Maple Leafs winger is off to the hottest start of his career which just happens to be in an important contract year.
Nylander has now picked up a point in each of the six games while adding a goal in four of the contests to give him ten points on the season.
The ten points passes his previous best through six games that he registered in his rookie season all the way back in 2016-17 when he collected four goals and nine points.
Toronto Maple Leafs: William Nylander Off to Hottest Start of Career
The biggest difference between Nylander’s rookie season and this ten point start is that the flashy winger has been competing more at five on five. During his rookie season when he jumped out with nine points, more than half of them were registered on the powerplay, where as Nylander has just three powerplay points this season.
The Swedish-Canadian is now the driver of his line compared to his rookie season when coach Mike Babcock would be bouncing him up and down the line-up.
Nylander is also averaging more than 20-minutes a night for the first time to start his season. His previous high was 19:37 set back in 2021-22 and is nearly four minutes higher than his first five seasons when he averaged just 16:38 during the Babcock years.
Nylander exploded in 2021-22 when he registered 80-points for the first time and then took it to a new level last year recording 40-goals for the first time and a new career best 87-points.
In both those seasons, Nylander was no where near as hot to start those seasons, as he started with five and six points in the first half dozen games.
The former first round pick has never lacked confidence with the puck, but he is showing even more dominance as he is now completely controlling the play as he maneuvers around the offensive zone to either create open space for a teammate or a scoring opportunity for himself.
As contract talks continue between the general manager Brad Treliving and Nylander, the player is putting up a strong case to become a fourth Toronto Maple Leafs player making eight digits per season.
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Now just days away from passing both Wendel Clark and Doug Gilmour on the all-time Maple Leafs scoring list, it would be a good time to get this superstar signed long term.