EA Sports does William Nylander dirty in their RW rankings
William Nylander has done nothing but prove he is worth every penny of his $6.9M annual average value since signing his deal in December of 2018, but he still gets brushed off when anyone discusses the idea of him as a top 10 right winger.
EA Sports released its top 10 right wingers on Monday and Nylander is nowhere to be found. Two players that have missed the majority of the past three seasons in Mark Stone and Vladimir Tarasenko are somehow rated number 7 and 9, for reasons unknown.
Not only is Nylander a much better skater than both, but since the 2019-2020 season, Nylander has registered 181 points to Tarasenko's 106 and Mark Stone's 154. That would place Nylander fifth overall the past three seasons, only behind Patrick Kane, Mitch Marner, David Pastrnak and Mikko Rantanen.
Not only is Nylander top 5 in points and even strength points, but he is also top 5 in goals in that time frame, scoring 82 goals since the 2019/20 season to rank him fourth overall in that category.
While we all see when Nylander is not engaged in games (see game 4 against Tampa) he is actually pretty good defensively when chasing down the puck as he once again ranks fifth in takeaways since the 2019/20 season with 131, which equates to 2.2 takeaways per 60 minutes. Nylander's deal has become one of the best value deals in the NHL and he will be in for a substantial pay raise when his contract ends at the end of the 2023/24 season alongside Auston Matthews. To say that he isn't a top 10 right winger at this stage of his career is almost preposterous.
