The NHL has released its most underrated players list, with one notable absence
Today, NHL.com released it's list of the most underrated players in the league. But you can make a case that the list is short a Leaf. That Leaf? William Nylander.
When going through the list, you can certainly understand the case for some of the players listed. Robert Thomas, Josh Norris and Jason Robertson are all young players having break out seasons. So it is easy to see why they might be considered underrated.
Looking at forwards Elias Lindholm, Anthony Duclair and Sam Reinhart, the case could be made that because they are in the second tiers of their own teams, they do not get the recognition they should league wide. Lindholm plays in Calgary, where Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau take up most of the oxygen. Duclair and Reinhart are in Florida, second tier to Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau.
Now apply that logic to here in Toronto, where William Nylander is clearly behind Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Marner and Matthews have been having career years and as such, William Nylander does not get the recognition he would if he didn't play behind two offensive juggernauts.
Nylander is a point per game player this season (76 points in 76 games) despite not playing with the best players on his team. Nylander has had 17 points in his last 11 games, despite playing primarily on a line with Pierre Engvall and David Kampf. Even with those two, he is able to drive offense.
Lindholm, for example, regularly plays with Gaudreau and Tkachuk and has 78 points in 77 games this season. Duclair regularly plays with Barkov and has put up 55 points in 68 games this season. While both are very good players and having successful seasons, it seems they are putting up similar, or less, numbers than William Nylander with better line mates.
If you are going to have Lindholm and Duclair on the list, you should include William Nylander.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 20 | 316 ANSWERS The NHL has released its most underrated players list, with one notable absence Who is the more underrated? | ||
| William Nylander | 166 | 52.5 % |
| Anthony Duclair | 72 | 22.8 % |
| Sam Reinhart | 30 | 9.5 % |
| Elias Lindholm | 48 | 15.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
