Just to clarify, Wilsons name has never been tossed in the rumor mill. Solely people on here (mostly toronto fans) wanting to trade for him.

I think the caps decline

These days it's Cap fans dreaming of getting Nylander for a soon to be 30 year old player leaving his prime. A player coming off a major knee surgery

Wilson isnt as good as Nylander. Wilson also hasnt entered his prime.

Nylander is the better player but I dont think the Caps will ever move Wilson even for Nylander straight up

Wilson has left his prime

You know these guys are two years apart in age, right? If Wilson’s already left his prime then Nylander’s about to leave his too.

This. If anyone can point me in the direction of a reputable source claiming the caps are shopping Wilson or humoring trade offers on him, I'd love to see it. Meanwhile, Nylander's name is being tossed everywhere. We'll happily take Nylander, but not for Wilson.

Yes but Nylander has missed almost no time for injury, Wilson has missed a decent amount due to injuries. that has to count for something, yes they are only 2 years apart but one has beaten his body for 10 seasons and the other has not. wilson has never reached over 24 goals and nylander hsa 2 seasons over 30 goals and one at 40. hard to say wilson is worth more than nylander.

Wilson missed a significant amount of time this year due to a torn ACL, but that’s his first major injury since he hurt his ankle skateboarding when he was still in Plymouth. Most of the games he’s missed prior to this season were from suspensions. He’s not shown any signs that his style of play is wearing him down. There’s a perception that power forwards drop off after 30 because they get ground down by their play style, but I think the issue is usually that these guys were barely fast enough for the NHL to begin with and when they lose a step it’s fatal. Wilson’s a good enough skater that he can slow as he ages without the game passing him by. Ovie got the same “his play style won’t age well” warnings when he was younger and look how that worked out.

As for Wilson vs Nylander, I’m just gonna copy my response from a similar thread right before this.

There’s more that goes into how a team values a player than on ice production. How easily they can replace what that player brings to the lineup (Wilson’s a unicorn and they have no one remotely similar to him in their system), how that player’s viewed within the locker room (Wilson’s beloved by his teammates and will likely be the next captain when Ovie retires), how that player is viewed by the fans (Wilson’s equally beloved by Caps fans and is probably the second best selling jersey right now behind Ovie), what their next contract looks like (I would guess Wilson’s extension will ultimately be 2-3M per year cheaper than Nylander’s), etc. Nylander’s obviously the better player in a vacuum, but I don’t think the Caps would be interested in a deal centered around Wilson for Nylander. They certainly wouldn’t be interested in adding significantly in such a deal.

Wilson's hard nose brand of hockey Leafs to a way quicker decline. And Nylander is way better to begin with.

Used car salesmanship

Just consider my reply to python as my response to this comment too.



To explain why I *don't* think a trade will happen? What?

Used car salesmanship

I don't think Nylander has hit his prime either. He will have more longevity than Wilson for sure.

I expect Wilson to hit new career highs over the next 3-4 seasons. I think after that point he will start to slow down.

He's not necessarily worth more than Nylander either, I think they are worth about the same even though Nylander is the better player. Preference wise, I dont think the caps would make the deal 1 for 1 even though other teams might if they were in this scenario

It almost never happens that players get better in their 30's. A players statistical best season comes around the age of 24/25. And they decline around 29/30. All players do this. Thinking Wilson is going to get better in his early 30's is just dreaming

Maybe, we will see

It's not a maybe, it's easily quantifiable data. If players got better in their early to mid 30's. Pittsburgh would still be a top team.

Just so we’re very clear here. This is absolutely not true.

The only way you can argue this is by taking the up tick in offence which has happened over the past several seasons and bending that fact to your argument. Look at the best seasons from most top players. Crosby, Malkin, MacKinnon, Rielly, etc etc. Almost all had their best seasons around 24. Since then scoring has gone up and some players have seen higher outputs. Stamkos is an example you'll use but his top season came when offence was way higher.

It's a human fact that males reach their physical prime at around 25. The average age in the NHL has dropped dramatically since the lockout. Further proof. Thinking you reach your prime in your 30's is lunacy. There is a very good reason why most people think long term contracts for guys in their 30's is a terrible idea. It's not because that's when they hit their prime.

This is one of the worst and stupidest arguments I’ve ever heard about anything. There are any number of players who had better NHL seasons after 25 than before. There are so many I’m not going to list them, that’s ridiculous. Plenty of NHL players aren’t even in the NHL until they’re 20-22 and have their best seasons more than three years into their careers. Arguing otherwise is ignorant. JT Miller is a decent enough recent example but there are plenty of others.

The average though is the truth not the outliers. Pointing at outlier players especially ones that did their work in seasons that saw a big increase in offence overall is bad methodology. The fact that you just don't want understand this makes it clear that you only accept information that agrees with your opinion. It's confirmation bias and it's stupid.