NHL.com names Maple Leafs’ William Nylander as league’s sixth-best winger

Starting this week, NHL Network is taking a look at the top players across the league by position, compiling lists made by producers and analysts. On Wednesday, they kicked the series off by ranking the top 20 wingers in the NHL heading into this season.

Coming in at sixth on the list is Toronto Maple Leafs right winger William Nylander. The 29-year-old Swede is coming off the three most productive seasons of his career, and led the Leafs with six goals and 15 points in the playoffs earlier this year.

On Nylander, they write:

“Nylander was second in the NHL with 45 goals last season and was second for the Maple Leafs with 84 points. It was the third straight season the 29-year-old right wing has scored at least 40 goals, and his 125 goals are tied for seventh in the NHL during that span. Nylander is one of four players to score 40 goals in three straight seasons for the Maple Leafs along with Auston Matthews (five straight, 2019-24), Rick Vaive (1981-84) and Lanny McDonald (1976-79). Nylander also played all 82 games for the third straight season; his streak of 259 consecutive games played is seventh among active NHL forwards. He was one of the first six players named to Sweden’s roster for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.”

Entering 2025-26, Nylander is on the second year of an eight-year, $92 million contract that kicked in last season. With an annual average salary of $11.5 million, he is tied for ninth in the league in yearly earnings, and will be the fourth most expensive winger this season.

In front of Nylander in order from first to fifth place are Nikita Kucherov, David Pastrnak, Kirill Kaprizov, Mikko Rantanen, and Mitch Marner. With Rantanen and Marner being two names that could have been in Maple Leafs jerseys this season (Rantanen through a trade that never was, and Marner… for obvious reasons), it’s up to Nylander to prove this year that he’s a crop above these two near teammates and assert himself as one of the league’s best.

And with his debut Olympic appearance set for February in Milan, look for Nylander to come out hot and hungry this October, as the Swede enters what may be the defining years of his career.