Nazem Kadri is one of the most under-appreciated and undervalued players in the entire National Hockey League.

I’m not sure if it was the constant tire-pumping when he was drafted, his honest and outgoing personality or the power of the media in Toronto, but Nazem Kadri gets a bad rap for no good reason.

There are four players, other than Kadri, who have played between 2700 and 2750 minutes of 5v5 since the 2012-2013 season (inclusive) with an individual pts/60 between 1.90 and 2.15. Kadri has a 2.02 iPts/60, so I dropped 0.12 and went up 0.13 to get the range for some comparable producers with the (near) same 5v5 TOI.

First, let’s look at all five players and their respective, current, cap hits from GeneralFanager.com.

It’s worth noting that Ryan O’Reilly’s cap hit will be skyrocketing to $7.5M per season in 2016-2017 – which, if Kadri drops 60+ points this year, won’t be good for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

That’s a pretty good group of players to be lumped in with – and they all get significantly more credit than Kadri does.

Now let’s take a look at the iPts/60 (2012/2013-2014/2015) of all five put together. (stats via Puckalytics.com)

Almost identical to Brandon Saad and well above Ryan O’Reilly. Things are looking up for Nazem.

Next up, individual primary points (at 5v5) since the 2012-2013 season. (stats via Puckalytics.com)

Kadri has 14 more primary points (goals + primary assists) at 5v5 than Ryan O’Reilly and is within six points of the leader of the group, Brad Marchand.

Things are still looking up for Kadri.

Let’s take a look at each players possession relative to their team and see how Kadri stacks up. (stats via war-on-ice.com)

Second.

Kadri stacks up to four highly skilled players in the NHL, two of them are fellow centers, who are constantly beloved by their respective fan-bases.

Nazem Kadri is the lowest paid of the five, and certainly isn’t the statistically weak link of the group – and he had to fight to get the $4.1M he got for this year.

If Nazem Kadri has a bounce back point season this year under Mike Babcock and whatever role the new coach puts him in then he’s going to hit the Toronto Maple Leafs cap account hard.

All he has to do is point to those four players, and note the time of Brad Marchand’s deal.

Nazem Kadri will be a major part of the rebuild – he’s an impact player. Whatever character issues he may have that rendered him suspended during last season aside, he’s a very talented hockey player that brings more to the Toronto Maple Leafs than he gets recognized for.