From Sweden, William Nylander was the 8^th Overall Pick in the 2014 Draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs and it did not take long for him to be a top forward for the club.

After he was drafted, Nylander spent the next two years switching from the Swedish League and the AHL, and he made his NHL debut in February of 2016, finishing with 13 Points in 21 Games, proving that he belonged permanently on the main roster.  Nylander scored 61 Points in each of the next two years, but a pay dispute led to a late start in 2018/19, and he was off all year, producing only 27 Points in 54 Games leading to concern among the fan base.   They needn’t have worried.

Nylander bounced back with his first 30-plus year (31) in 2019/20, and in 2021/22, broke out with his first 80 Point campaign.   The Swedish Center imrproved his numbers in 2022-23 Goals (40), Assists (47) and Points (87), and last year he came close to 100 Points (98) with his second straight 40 Goal year.  His performance was so good, that he finally made it to the All-Star Game.

While Auston Matthews gains the most attention, much of Toronto's offensive power comes from Nylander.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our post 2022/23 revision of our top 50 Pittsburgh Penguins.

As for all of our top 50 players in hockey we look at the following:

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Hockey League.

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Last year, Pittsburgh missed out on the playoffs, but there were still a pair of new entrants and some elevations. 

As always, we present our top five, which saw some changes:

1. Mario Lemieux

2. Sidney Crosby

3. Evgeni Malkin

4. Jaromir Jagr

5. Kris Letang

You can find the entire list here.

In the top five, Malkin overtook Jagr for the #3 spot in a reversal of the former Hart Trophy winners.  Letang remains at #5.

Center, Jake Guentzel, climbed to #16 from #23 and Right Wing, Bryan Rust, moved to #27 from #31.

The new entries were Defenseman, Brian Dumoulin and Goalie, Tristan Jarry at #37 and #38 respectively.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.

The First Overall Pick in 2009, John Tavares began his pro career with the New York Islanders.  With the Isles, Tavares was a five-time All-Star, one-time First Team All-Star and was the face of the franchise.  However, home is where the heart is, and the native of Mississauga, Ontario jumped at the chance to fulfill his childhood dream and wear the blue and white.  That came true in 2018, when the Center signed as a Free Agent.

While it might seem that Tavares has not been as productive as a Maple Leaf, based on All-Star appearances, he has not had to be Toronto’s top scorer like he had to be in New York.  That being said, Tavares goes into this season with a higher Point-per-Game Average in Toronto, and his 88-Point/47 Goal year in 2018-19 was his highest to date.  Since then, Tavares has produced Point outputs of 60, 50, 76, 80 and 65, which have helped the Maple Leafs reach the playoffs each year.

Tavares would love nothing better than to complete the boyhood dream and hoist the Stanley Cup as a Maple Leaf.  He has the surrounding parts to make it happen.

A significant retirement took place as Goran Dragic has announced his retirement from Basketball.

From Slovenia, Dragic had a solid career on both sides of the Atlantic, beginning his career with Slovan of the Slovenian League in 2004.  After two seasons, he played for Murcia of the Spanish League for a season, before returning to Slovenia, this time for KK Olimpija, where he led them to a League Championship, League Cup and Supercup win.  His work in Europe gained attention from the NBA, and was drafted by the Phoenix Suns in the Second Round in 2008.

Dragic joined the Suns, playing there for two-and-a-half seasons before he was traded to the Houston Rockets, but after a full year there, he signed back with the Suns, where he became a starter at Guard.   His NBA game went to the next level in 2013/14, where he had his first 20-plus PPG year and won the Most Improved Player of the Year.

In 2015, Dragic was traded to Miami where he had his second 20-plus scoring year (2016-17) and was named to the All-Star Team in 2018.  He closed his NBA career with brief stops in Toronto, Brooklyn, Chicago and Milwaukee, and overall played 946 games with 12,568 Points.

Internationally, Dragic led Slovenia often, and led them to a Gold Medal in the 2017 FIBA EuroBasket, where he was the tournament MVP.

He will be eligible for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2027, and his best path of entry is through the International Category, though there will be stiff competition.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to wish Goran Dragic the best in his post-playing career.