Alex Nylander still has some time to figure out his place in the NHL. Whether or not he is going to do it with the Blackhawks is still up in the air.
Alexander Nylander played in a career-high 65 games this past season with the Chicago Blackhawks, and he put up 26 points in that time. He was kind of flaky this season with some great play for a few games before falling off of the map for the next ten or so games. The biggest thing the 21-year-old needs to work on is consistency.
That is the interesting thing about Nylander. He is only 21 years old. This season saw him play a career-high 65 games with the Blackhawks, and it was not that bad of a year for the young winger. Nylander is still under contract through the end of next season, and as of right now the Blackhawks should have the money to re-sign him.
Re-signing Nylander should be a no-brainer for Stan Bowman if he is still with the team next year. Nylander is a wild card that costs Bowman a very good defensive player in Henri Jokiharu. He can not give up on Nylander too quickly, otherwise, he will admit defeat in that trade which Bowman will not want to do.
Nylander is young, and the NHL has turned into a young man’s game. So many of the great players in the league are just coming out of the draft. Chicago could use a young asset like Nylander on their team in the hopes that he can turn things around and really become something.
I still do not agree with the Jokiharu trade which brought Nylander to Chicago, but I also would not agree with trading away the young winger just yet. Unless Nylander has a breakout season next year, they should have no issue re-signing him for 1 or 1.5 million for the next two or so years.
Hopefully, Bowman does not wait too long to sign him and create issues as he has now with Dominik Kubalik and Dylan Strome