William Nylander

Last Season

Thirty goals and 49 assists in 65 games — 79 points, minus-14, at 19:25 a night with seven power-play goals and only sixteen penalty minutes. Seventeen games missed.

His 750th career game and his 691st point.

The Finesse Game

The most naturally gifted player on the roster. He carries the puck at speed better than anybody in the lineup and the hands in tight are exceptional.

Two hundred and thirty-four unblocked attempts, 31 goals, median 30 feet with only 34 per cent from inside twenty and 29 per cent from beyond forty. He scores from range because the release is quick and because he does not much like the traffic.

Forty-nine assists in 65 games is a genuinely excellent rate.

The Physical Game

Six foot even, 200, and among the least physically engaged forwards in the league. Sixteen penalty minutes in 65 games.

He does not forecheck, does not finish checks, and does not go to the front of the net. This has been the argument about him for a decade and it has never once been settled by anything except more points.

The Intangibles

Forty-six point five per cent of the expected goals, 21st percentile, across 976 minutes, with the goals 32 for and 51 against.

That is the worst on-ice goal margin of any Toronto forward and it sits under a seventy-nine-point season.

Fourteen points in his last ten, six of them goals. He is 30, and the honest read is that he is a point-a-game winger on a club that concedes when he is out there, and no coach has yet worked out how to have the first without the second.