With fans already frustrated at the player for his hold out, the media covering the Toronto Maple Leafs focused heavily on his inability to score after his return to the lineup.
Many in the media were openly critical of Leafs GM Kyle Dubas for not playing hard ball. (This never made sense to me. He took it down to the wire and time will prove the deal is team friendly).
And overall, coverage of Dubas, Nylander, his contract and his early season play was uniformly negative.
Even when Nylander started to play well, because it wasn’t translating to points (Matthews and Kadri both went 12 games with a single goal each, at one point), hardly anyone noticed or cared.