This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
William Nylander
Toronto Maple Leafs Right Wing
45 goals on 253 shots and eight game-winners, in the best season of his career.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | TOR | 22 | 6 | 7 | 13 | +1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 43 | 14.0 | 16:20 |
| 2016-17 | TOR | 81 | 22 | 39 | 61 | -3 | 32 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 205 | 10.7 | 16:01 |
| 2017-18 | TOR | 82 | 20 | 41 | 61 | +20 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 184 | 10.9 | 16:41 |
| 2018-19 | TOR | 54 | 7 | 20 | 27 | -4 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 130 | 5.4 | 15:31 |
| 2019-20 | TOR | 68 | 31 | 28 | 59 | -2 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 197 | 15.7 | 18:13 |
| 2020-21 | TOR | 51 | 17 | 25 | 42 | +10 | 16 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 133 | 12.8 | 16:36 |
| 2021-22 | TOR | 81 | 34 | 46 | 80 | -9 | 16 | 13 | 0 | 7 | 256 | 13.3 | 18:16 |
| 2022-23 | TOR | 82 | 40 | 47 | 87 | +10 | 28 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 293 | 13.7 | 18:33 |
| 2023-24 | TOR | 82 | 40 | 58 | 98 | +1 | 24 | 11 | 3 | 7 | 316 | 12.7 | 19:55 |
| 2024-25 | TOR | 82 | 45 | 39 | 84 | +10 | 26 | 12 | 0 | 8 | 253 | 17.8 | 19:31 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 685 | 262 | 350 | 612 | +34 | 184 | 74 | 3 | 47 | 2010 | 13.0 | 17:47 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
45 goals and 39 assists in 82 games — 84 points at 19:31 a night, plus-10, with 12 power-play goals and 8 game-winning goals on 253 shots, converting at 17.8 per cent.
49.6 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five, the 47th percentile. His ice went 41-39 against an expectation of 48.91-49.74 — eight goals of scoring missing and eleven fewer conceded, which for a winger with this reputation defensively is not the number anybody expects.
The Finesse Game
The hands at speed are the best on the club. He carries the puck through the neutral zone at full pace without losing it, he changes his angle mid-stride, and he beats a defenceman one-on-one more often than anybody here.
253 attempts at a median of 29 feet with 33 per cent from inside 20. The release is quick and he shoots from range as readily as from the paint, and 17.8 per cent on that distribution is a very high rate.
The Physical Game
6-0 and 200 and he is not in the physical half of the game. He does not forecheck with force, he does not win pucks on the wall, and 26 penalty minutes in 82 games is a winger who is almost never involved in contact.
He takes a hit to make a play and he does not answer one. The criticism has followed him for a decade and the point totals have gone up every year regardless.
The Intangibles
Eighth overall in 2014, the son of a long-serving NHL forward, and 685 games and 612 points — all of it here, through a contract holdout in 2018 that cost him half a season.
He is 29. He has scored 40 or more in three of the last four years and he signed an eight-year extension in 2024.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,189 minutes
- Expected goals
- 49.6%
- 48th pct
- Shot attempts
- 48%
- 32nd pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 41 for, 39 against. Expected: 48.9 and 49.7.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 36 points above where the numbers do. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 637 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 79 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 · 1189 minutes at five-on-five
- John Tavares55%
- Bobby McMann25%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- TOR took 50.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 49.6% — 0.6 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- First line, 1,189 minutes at five-on-five — 84th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Tavares | 49.5% | 49.6% | 47.6% |
| Morgan Rielly | 48.5% | 50.4% | 50.3% |
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson | 47.3% | 50.9% | 51.0% |
49.5% together, 49.6% for him apart and 47.6% for Tavares apart. Splitting them up moved neither man. Whatever is driving the share, it is not this pairing.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
345 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 46 of them goals. His median goal came from 23 feet. 34% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 22% from beyond forty.