William Nylander Grade: A
In some ways, I see the Nylander and Marner as similar players. Both are exceptional playmakers, Nylander only trailed Marner by four primary assists but ended up having three point total assists (granted Nylander played 13 more games)
Where these two differ is in their scoring ability and defense. While Marner is one of the best defensive wingers in the NHL, Nylander leaves a lot to be desired on that side of the puck.
But Nylander more than makes up for it by putting the puck in the back of the net.
Nylander finished the year with 40 goals which was good enough to finish tied for 15th is goals scored this season. In addition, Nylander's 98 points was the 10th most by any player this season and top his career high in points by 11. To me, he was one of the best players in the NHL this season and deserves a grade that reflects that.
John Tavares Grade: B
For the first time in his career, it looked like John Tavares lost a step, but that is likely more to do with his unlucky totals than his actual play.
Tavares is now 33 years old and is contracted for one more season by the Maple Leafs. He spent most of this season playing alongside William Nylander, who had a career year, but did most of his damage on the power-play.
JT finished the year with only 65 points, 15 points less than he had last year. Tavares, however, posted on-ice 5v5 numbers that were on par with his best years. He had one of the lowest shooting percentage seasons he's ever had.
Despite having good underlying advanced analytics, this did not translate into production on the stat sheet, as far as Tavares standards go, this season was quite disappointing. Still, he took on a defensive role in the playoffs and more or less shut-down David Pastrnak. You'd like to see more production, but the underlying numbers remain strong.