Well, once again, the Toronto Maple Leafs' season has come to an end with a loss in Game 7. This time with complete and utter devastation at the hands of the Florida Panthers, the core four failed to be an effective force in the game, and the Leafs' sole goal was scored by Max Domi in the third period. With the playoffs over, it is now a time to reflect on what went wrong and what went right, and one of those things that went right was William Nylander.
Nylander scored the most goals out of the core four with six tallies through the postseason. He had the second-most assists at nine, for a total of 15 points which led the team. And comparing that to the other members of this core -- Marner's 13 points, Matthews's 10, and Tavares's seven -- he clearly led the team's offense for most of the 13 appearances. Nylander also had more goals than Marner and Matthews combined, who together only managed to scrounge up 4 goals.
Nylander got his first playoff goal against the Ottawa Senators in the second period of Game 1 of that series. Toronto won that game 6-2. In the next few games, there were no goals, but there were many assists in all the games leading up to Game 6, except for Game 5. Speaking of Game 6 against the Senators, that is where Nylander got into his groove, scoring two goals and one assist and earning three points. Overall, in the series against the Sens, Nylander earned 9 points, the most out of the core four.
In the series against Florida, things weren't as rosy for Nylander, hardly surprising considering how good a team the Panthers are. He tied Marner for points at six, but he did manage to score three goals against the Panthers. All three came in the first two games, with him scoring two in the first and one in the second. After which, he didn't score a single goal but did manage to get two assists in Game 3. After that game, however, Nylander didn't earn a single point, and as well all know, the Leafs lost the series.
If anything can be said about Nylander, it's that he contributed the most out of the core four, averaging 1.15 points per game, in this year's playoffs, which is the most out of any Leafs player and .15 points ahead of second place Mitch Marner. While the Leafs didn't even come close this year to winning the Stanley Cup, and a lot of people are putting the blame on the core four not even trying it wouldn't be fair to say Nylander didn't try.