Someone asked me the other day if I was worried about Nazem Kadri. The fact that we even have to ask that question made me realize how underappreciated his play has been over the past few years. Then I saw this tweet by Sean Tierney and knew I had to write a piece about it.



If you were to ask a casual hockey fan about the Toronto Maple Leafs, they’d probably bring up ‘the big three’ (Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander), the John Tavares signing, their ridiculous power play, all of those third period leads that they’ve blown over the years (“it was 4-1”) – but Kadri’s name would be pretty far down that list.



When you break down his performance over the past few years, I’d make the argument that he belongs in the same conversation with those star players. In fact, when you take his contract into account, I think there’s an argument to be made that he’s one of the most valuable assets...