Predict William Nylander's point totals this year

[Reuben]

30-35

He'll have a handful of scratches, limited minutes in plenty of games. He's a rookie.

[gainerama]

30-35

He'll have a handful of scratches, limited minutes in plenty of games. He's a rookie.

This, people forget that he's a rookie on a crap team with limited support right now. 40 pts if the stars align.

[bigbabybuda]

He is not your typical rookie has been playing against men now for close to 4 years I think and was leading the AHL as a 19 year old in points before his injury. Him playing on a bad team will do nothing but help his production aas he will end up getting top PP minutes fairly early in the season. Predictions of 30 points are way low barring some unforeseen injury imo

[rufio.85]

He is not your typical rookie has been playing against men now for close to 4 years I think and was leading the AHL as a 19 year old in points before his injury. Him playing on a bad team will do nothing but help his production aas he will end up getting top PP minutes fairly early in the season. Predictions of 30 points are way low barring some unforeseen injury imo

While I'm doubtful he gets to 55 this season, I agree with bigbabybuda here... 30 points is on the very low-side imo.
Opportunity is the key here. If Nylander was on a stacked club, he wouldn't get any significant minutes but this is not the case with the Leafs (he was already at over 16 min/game last season).
Look at what Gaudreau did on an empty Calgary roster a few years back. I'm not comparing Nylander to him in terms of production, but rather tracing a parallel between their respective opportunities.
Ehlers played with 3rd liners for half a season and he still put up 38 points in 72 games in his rookie year. I think they are similar players.
My prediction: 42-46 points, with the potential to top 55 if all goes well.

[theIceWookie]

With Marner and Matthews hype hitting Torono, and with Nylander's WJC concussion causing him to miss the entire WJC and a good chunk of the AHL season, I feel as if Nylander has become a little forgotten. Which honestly is a little mystifying.

Nylander played 22 games and put up 6 goals and 13 points. Modest totals but that's a 22 goal and 48 point pace, and a 160 shot pace (43 shots in 22 games). Which was better than Larkin's PPG pace, and only below McDavid, Panarin, Ghost, Eichel, and Domi. And Nylander did that with virtually no offensive support either (Bozak and JVR were injured, Kadri was suspended during part of the time), and lower ice time totals (around 16 minutes a game). There were so many pucks that died on his teammates sticks it was ridiculous. He was also needing to worry about being more defensively responsible as he was thrust into a top 6 center role because the team had no one to play it. And through it all he showed some good potential in his first taste of the NHL.

30 points is honestly a real low expectation. He'll have some more offensive support, he'll likely be getting top 6 time and he won't have to worry as much about being defensively responsible like a center (also the idea that he's lazy is ridiculous, he's not, he's just smartly positioned). I think 40-50 is a very feasible range for him to score in. I'm guessing a low of 49, and a high of 58 points.

I think Nylander is going to surprise some people

[Reuben]

I'll grant that 30-35 was low...and I probably see more of a 40ish for Nylander.

But I also see a team that had 45 points leading it last year. A team with very little offensive support. Nylander had a decent late season stretch, yes, but it's a 25-game stretch. A full season of NHL grind is very, very different

You point out Ehlers with 37 points. The vast majority of those points came in an early season stint and a late season stint with Scheifele and Wheeler. Those are pretty good players.

The vast majority of young forwards quite simply don't have big seasons as rookies. Add in a team fairly bereft of talent, and I have a really hard time seeing 50 for Nylander.

But I'll revise my expectations to 40...because you guys are right that 30ish is probably low.

[theIceWookie]

I'll grant that 30-35 was low...and I probably see more of a 40ish for Nylander.

But I also see a team that had 45 points leading it last year. A team with very little offensive support. Nylander had a decent late season stretch, yes, but it's a 25-game stretch. A full season of NHL grind is very, very different

You point out Ehlers with 37 points. The vast majority of those points came in an early season stint and a late season stint with Scheifele and Wheeler. Those are pretty good players.

The vast majority of young forwards quite simply don't have big seasons as rookies. Add in a team fairly bereft of talent, and I have a really hard time seeing 50 for Nylander.

But I'll revise my expectations to 40...because you guys are right that 30ish is probably low.

William Nylander and Nikolaj Ehlers aren't the best comparables though. I realize that they have similar skillsets but they still aren't that comparable.

Ehlers prior to this season was playing in the Q. He had no prior pro experience of any sort. So he was very much jumping into his first pro season with little real preparation for it.

Nylander has played in three full seasons of pro hockey. Not those three seasons have been split between Allsvensken, the SHL, the AHL and the NHL but he has a significant advantage in pro experience. He also has a season and a half of pro experience in NA hockey in that 3 seasons. He's learned the systems the Leafs employ and he's had time to acclimate to the North American ice surface and rigours of the game. To boot, he now has 22 games of NHL experience to add to that to end off the season. I don't buy the argument that he'll have as much struggle as Ehlers. He's more prepared than Ehlers could have been. That's not even getting into the actual outcome that Nylander had in those season's (unparalled production in the AHL for his age, unheard of production in the SHL for his age etc...)

Nylander's been overshadowed by the recently drafted Matthews (for obvious and good reasons) and the hype Marner's gotten. I think he's going to surprise people though by just how talented he is

[lucafen4]

William Nylander and Nikolaj Ehlers aren't the best comparables though. I realize that they have similar skillsets but they still aren't that comparable.

Ehlers prior to this season was playing in the Q. He had no prior pro experience of any sort. So he was very much jumping into his first pro season with little real preparation for it.

Nylander has played in three full seasons of pro hockey. Not those three seasons have been split between Allsvensken, the SHL, the AHL and the NHL but he has a significant advantage in pro experience. He also has a season and a half of pro experience in NA hockey in that 3 seasons. He's learned the systems the Leafs employ and he's had time to acclimate to the North American ice surface and rigours of the game. To boot, he now has 22 games of NHL experience to add to that to end off the season. I don't buy the argument that he'll have as much struggle as Ehlers. He's more prepared than Ehlers could have been. That's not even getting into the actual outcome that Nylander had in those season's (unparalled production in the AHL for his age, unheard of production in the SHL for his age etc...)

Nylander's been overshadowed by the recently drafted Matthews (for obvious and good reasons) and the hype Marner's gotten. I think he's going to surprise people though by just how talented he is

Totally agree. He's been bumped down the prospect rankings after this past NHL draft, but that isn't lowering his ceiling. If you look at the list of players listed lower than him, there's some on there that people think will crack 70pts one day. If he's ranked above them... he has a high ceiling. Leafs have 3 elite prospects coming up. He's one of them. So excited to see these kids all explode together in the next couple years

[pmorrow]

45-50 points. Great talent who should get opportunities, but there will be some growing pains.

[The Hockey Hitman]

65 pts. what you guys think

He'll have a similar season as Dylan Larkin did last season, maybe slightly better.

23 G, 25 A, 48 PTS

[theIceWookie]

He'll have a similar season as Dylan Larkin did last season, maybe slightly better.

23 G, 25 A, 48 PTS

I'm on board with this.

[BogosianLandeskog]

I see a big year ahead, 25g 35a 60 pts.

Years beyond he has 80+ pt upside.

[Big Baby]

25g, 26a - 51p

This kid is great and like others have mentioned, hugely underrated.

[Big Baby]

http://twitter.com/TLNdc/status/7566...795585/photo/1

[ericdaoust]

http://twitter.com/TLNdc/status/7566...795585/photo/1

Is he on the Brock Lesnar diet?