Quoting: Juice
There's a difference between forgetting 3 years ago and recognizing development paths. 3 years ago Nylander was riding shotgun to Matthews while Marner was getting 3rd and 4th line minutes either trying to bounce pucks in off of JVR or scrapping away last year with Matt Martin and Dominic Moore. He really didn't start to get going until finally getting promoted to a line with Kadri (who was in a major scoring slum himself), and then the two of them took off to the races.
So it's not about forgetting where the both started...it's about looking at where they are now...and IMO, Marner's impact on each game both offensively and defensively is bigger than any other forward right now.
That's a fair point about looking at where they are right now. Current output has to figure into things as much as past output. But if we're going to go there then its worthwhile pointing out that Nylander hasn't been playing with Matthews this year. And that's likely impacted his stats. It's also worth pointing out that JT has made a career out of helping to get his wingers paid. And JT has likely impacted Mitch's stats too.
I think this is where we're at
*We have alot of young RFA talent that are going to command a pay increase, and as a result, we're likely going to lose someone we don't want to.
*There has been alot of agms posted that show how we can keep the majority of the team together by moving some combination of players like Brown, Z, Hyman, losing Gards and Hainsey etc and filling in with elcs. But these configurations seem highly dependant on getting the RFAs signed on reasonable contracts.
*If the leafs are developing a trend of over paying for their RFAs, and they continue to do so, then instead of losing guys like Brown et al. we're likely going to lose 1 of Nylander or Kadri plus some of the Browns etc. There really is only so much to go around. Because... Math. Or the cap.
There's gonna be some changes coming in the offseason.. and that's ok.