Näslund was known as a highly skilled offensive player with good skating and puck-handling abilities. The most prominent aspect of his game was his wrist shot, which was known to be one of the most accurate in the league and accounted for a large portion of his goals. He also earned many of his points on the powerplay. Regarding his skill level and creativity, his first Canucks head coach, Marc Crawford, heralded him as one of "a handful of players in this game who can take a play where there's nothing...and turn it into a scoring chance".