William Nylander has been named the NHL’s rookie of the month for the month of October.
Nylander is the first Leaf skater to receive rookie of the month honours since Steve Sullivan, who won it following an 11-point month (14 games) during the 1996-97 season. Goaltender James Reimer was awarded rookie of the month when he first broke the league in 2012.
The last Maple Leaf skater to win rookie of the month?
Steve Sullivan
1996-1997
14gp, 4g, 7a, 11pts in March.Almost 20 years ago.
— Maple Leafs Hotstove (@LeafsNews) November 1, 2016
The honour is all the more impressive given it’s been the month of the rookie in the NHL, with stiff competition from Patrik Laine, Auston Matthews, Travis Konecny, Jimmy Vesey, Zach Werenski and Mitch Marner. 31 rookies have played eight or more games this season compared to 25 at this juncture of last season.
Here is the rundown of Nylander’s accomplishments in the month of October:
– His four multi-point games are tied for the most in the NHL with Jeff Skinner and Connor McDavid.
– His seven powerplay points are tied for first in the league (7).
– His 11 points place him in a tie for third in overall NHL points scoring.
– His three powerplay markers place him tied for third in the NHL in PP goals.
– He’s recorded at least a shot in every game so far and is 11th in the NHL in total shots on goal (31).
– Among rookies he is first in points (11), fourth in goals (4), second in shots on goal (31), and second in powerplay goals (3).
With 22 points in his last 21 games dating back to the end of last season and 24 points in 31 NHL games total, Nylander leads the entire 2014 draft class in points-per-game production with a .77, significantly ahead of next-best (and fellow Swede) David Pastrnak’s .59 (of course, keep the smaller sample size in mind when comparing to Pastrnak, Leon Draisatl, Dylan Larkin, Nikolaj Ehlers, Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart, Robby Fabri, etc).
2014 NHL Entry Draft Production
Round | Num. | Team | Player | Pos | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | PPG |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 8 | Toronto | William Nylander | C | 31 | 10 | 14 | 24 | 8 | 0.77 |
1 | 25 | Boston | David Pastrnak | L | 104 | 30 | 31 | 61 | 30 | 0.59 |
1 | 3 | Edmonton | Leon Draisaitl | C | 118 | 23 | 43 | 66 | 24 | 0.56 |
1 | 15 | Detroit | Dylan Larkin | C | 90 | 26 | 23 | 49 | 47 | 0.54 |
1 | 9 | Winnipeg | Nikolaj Ehlers | L | 81 | 17 | 25 | 42 | 25 | 0.52 |
1 | 21 | St. Louis | Robby Fabbri | C | 81 | 18 | 22 | 40 | 31 | 0.49 |
1 | 2 | Buffalo | Sam Reinhart | C | 96 | 24 | 23 | 47 | 12 | 0.49 |
1 | 4 | Calgary | Sam Bennett | C | 88 | 21 | 22 | 43 | 57 | 0.49 |
1 | 1 | Florida | Aaron Ekblad | D | 168 | 28 | 48 | 76 | 79 | 0.45 |
3 | 79 | Tampa Bay | Brayden Point | C | 9 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0.44 |
2 | 58 | Arizona | Christian Dvorak | C | 7 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0.43 |
1 | 16 | Columbus | Sonny Milano | L | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.33 |
4 | 112 | Nashville | Viktor Arvidsson | R | 70 | 12 | 10 | 22 | 37 | 0.31 |
1 | 24 | Vancouver | Jared McCann | C | 78 | 9 | 9 | 18 | 32 | 0.23 |
1 | 6 | Vancouver | Jake Virtanen | R | 62 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 47 | 0.23 |
1 | 27 | San Jose | Nikolay Goldobin | L | 9 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0.22 |
1 | 20 | Chicago | Nick Schmaltz | F | 9 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0.22 |
1 | 11 | Nashville | Kevin Fiala | C | 14 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0.21 |
1 | 10 | Anaheim | Nick Ritchie | L | 42 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 45 | 0.17 |
3 | 66 | Vancouver | Nikita Tryamkin | D | 13 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 0.15 |
5 | 126 | Vancouver | Gustav Forsling | D | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.14 |