Quoting: Saskleaf
Hyman sometimes plays on line 3, and he drives that line. Even when he doesn't, he's not just feeding off M+M. He goes into the corners, plays on the penatly kill, hits, etc. Nylander always plays with Tavares and never on the penatly kill, and he never goes into the corners to battle, or hit. Saying Hyman only gets points off the backs of Matthews and Marner is not entirely true, and even if it was, Hyman excels far above Nylander in other aspects of the game. They are probably equal in how much they help the leafs win. If I had to choose between resigning Hyman and trading Nylander, I'd resign Hyman. But that said, I fully understand why someone would prefer Nylander to Hyman. Both are excellent players.
Hyman is a very good player no question. However he is a depth player. Never overpay depth. What he does can be found in cheaper players if his demand is 4+ million. When he "drives" the 3rd line it doesn't really score much, but hems other lines in their own zone sometime. It chips in offensively occasionally and is fun to watch because it's tenacious. Without the offensive firepower of Matthews, Marner, JT or Nylander though, it doesn't score much. Hyman not playing with Matthews this season has been about a 30 point player. Valuable to have no doubt but Kerfoot is a 30 point player and does some of the things Hyman does and offers similar offence. Put him with Matthews and Marner and I'd wager Kerfoot would get a lot more points as well.
Yes Hyman hits sometimes and he is good defensively and is a good forechecker. That is all important and valuable but it has a limit. Hyman doesn't really take over a game any more than Mikheyev can take over a game. Nylander though? He can and has and did literally last night. Saying he doesn't go into the corners is just ignorant, he led the NHL in offensive zone take aways and you don't do that without going into the corners from time to time. Yeah he doesn't hit but who cares, he makes stuff happen. Yes you can say sometimes his drive doesn't appear to be there but his skill level is extremely high and it's hard to deny that if he puts it all together for a full 82 game season his ceiling is elite. Being a point a game is easily attainable for him. He just needs to want it bad enough. He's still young and with some younger players they need time to really learn that sense of urgency and recently, it's been looking like he is pretty urgent. Hyman just isn't what Nylander can be. If you have to choose one, you choose the one that is hardest to replace and that is without question Nylander.