Nylander quietly becoming one of the most underrated goal scorers in entire NHL; surprisingly leads the Leafs in goals this season
Former Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke was the pioneer of the William Nylander is overpaid and overrated hype-train. Many believed he was overpaid after getting a contract that accounted for $6.92 million against the cap, but all he has quietly done is produce consistently without much recognition.
Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are the offensive pillars of the team as evidenced by Matthews' 60-goal campaign last year and Marner's current 22-game point streak. However, over the last 4 seasons and since 2019-20, William Nylander sits 12th in the NHL in goals scored. On top of that, he has more goals than the highest scoring player on 20 teams.
Unfortunately for Nylander, Matthews has made his goal scoring a bit more "underrated", but that comes with the territory for someone who leads the NHL in that same time span with 162 goals. Matthews has 14 more goals in 12 less games than Leon Draisaitl who sits second and 24 more goals than Alexander Ovechkin. Nylander quietly has been one of the most consistent goal scorers and sits ahead of players like Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, and Filip Forsberg, just to name a few.
Earlier tonight, William Nylander scored his 16th and 17th goals of the season, which catapulted him ahead of Alex DeBrincat (98) and Brad Marchand (97), while also tying Elias Lindholm (99) over the aforementioned 4-year span.
| POLL | ||
10 DECEMBRE | 229 ANSWERS Nylander quietly becoming one of the most underrated goal scorers in entire NHL; surprisingly leads the Leafs in goals this season Is Nylander the most underrated sniper in the NHL? | ||
| Yes | 190 | 83 % |
| No | 39 | 17 % |
| List of polls | ||
