Brendan Shanahan couldn’t wait to give William Nylander a little jab.
“Hey, c’mon, that’s $121,” quipped Shanahan as Nylander walked off the ice to get another stick, having broken his in practice across the leg of teammate Petter Granberg. All in the heat of friendly competition, of course.
Nylander just grinned and rushed past, not taken aback one bit by the fact it was the president of the Toronto Maple Leafs giving him the verbal gears, or that Shanahan was down at the Mastercard Centre observing the AHL Marlies crisply go through their paces under rookie head coach Sheldon Keefe rather than with the big club in Dallas preparing to play the Stars.
Maybe it was a first round pick (2nd overall in 1987) to first round pick (8th in 2014) moment, and those guys tend to carry themselves with confidence. But Shanahan knows the future of the Leaf team he hopes to build will be impacted significantly by whether Nylander becomes a star, and so if the kid needs a dozen $121 sticks a day to get there, he’ll get them.
For now, the 19-year-old Nylander is learning the pro game at the AHL level, not yet given the chance to shine in the NHL as have five players taken before him (Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart, Leon Draisaitl, Sam Bennett and Jake Virtanen) – or four after him (Nik Ehlers, Dylan Larkin, Jared McCann and David Pastrnak).
He’s been burning up the minors of late, but there isn’t a local chorus calling him to be recalled to the Maple Leafs immediately in the same way there would have been in years past.
That’s indicative of a changing of the narrative in Toronto. Instead of panic and widespread derision because the NHL club is actually lower in the standings even compared to last season when it missed the playoffs again, there’s a growing sense that something gradual and logical is actually taking place with the franchise.
What you see with the Leafs and their woeful win-loss record is actually a relatively small part of what’s happening with the organization. While a team like Phoenix decided it needed impact youngsters like Max Domi and Anthony Duclair on the NHL roster this season without first apprenticing in the minors, the Leafs have decided that less at the NHL level now will amount to more later.
The MLSE hockey team to watch may not be the Leafs, but the Marlies, the team with Nylander and a dozen other Toronto draft picks, and a team that bears the imprint of Mike Babcock just as much as the parent club.
“I was fortunate to get a head start into pro hockey because of how inclusive Mike Babcock and the Leaf staff was,” said Keefe, a former NHLer who coached the major junior Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds last season. “It started, really, at the draft, and it was 2-3 weeks of being in the offices all day and being a part of all the meetings.
“I can’t say it surprised me because I was told well in advance that’s how things were going to be. But you don’t go into it with the expectation it’s going to be that inclusive. Talking to other coaches around the AHL, it’s not that way in a lot of places. It just goes to show the commitment of the whole organization to what we’re trying to do with our players.”
Back in 2012, the Marlies were a finalist for the Calder Cup under head coach Dallas Eakins. That was viewed as evidence of an organization that was trying to learn how to develop players better, and Nazem Kadri and Jake Gardiner are still with the Leafs today.
But it was also a hockey club driven by older players like Mike Zigomanis, Greg Scott and Ryan Hamilton. By comparison, this year’s Marlie team has four recent first rounders, including Pittsburgh draftee Kasperi Kapanen.
Back in 2012, Eakins coached a different style to Ron Wilson. Now Keefe is preaching from the same hymn book as Babcock, as is Anthony Noreen, last year’s coach-of-the-year in the USHL who is now head coach with the Orlando Solar Bears, Toronto’s ECHL affiliate.
Keefe, 10-3 so far with the high-scoring Marlies, says he’s in “constant communication” with Babcock.
“He wants reports, he wants to know what’s happening all the time,” said Keefe. “It’s connecting the whole organization, including the folks in Orlando. We’re trying to make sure everybody’s plugged in.”
The Marlies aren’t even at the 20-game mark, of course, and things around the Leaf organization have tended over the years to be one way one day, another way the next.
“I’ve had four different head coaches in four years,” said 23-year-old centre Sam Carrick, a former fifth rounder who played 16 NHL games last year.
“In my first year, which was the (NHL) lockout year, we had a lot of older guys and there wasn’t a lot of space for me. So I went down to the East Coast League and worked my way up.
“Now, they’re putting a lot of emphasis on keeping the team young and developing the young guys. They’re definitely coaching the same way at both levels. Even in practices I notice Babcock doesn’t really use the whiteboard, and down here Sheldon doesn’t use it at all. The main goal is for everyone to be as comfortable as they can when they get called up.”
Garrett Sparks, the AHL player-of-the-week last week, was drafted back in 2011 and spent most of last season in Orlando.
“It does feel different,” said the 22-year-old netminder. “The thing is that it’s all one common goal now. Right from the Leafs all the way down to Orlando. It’s a three-tiered system now. You’re going to see guys who were playing in the ECHL that will be impact players on the Maple Leafs. I don’t have any doubt about that.”
Nylander is the best Marlie forward, but don’t bet on him being the next callup. Josh Leivo could be that player, and everyone seems pleased with Russian import Nikita Soshnikov. Both Kapanen and Connor Brown are hurt at the moment.
“Am I close? Yes, it’s just over there,” quipped Nylander, motioning in the direction of the Air Canada Centre. “I want to be able to help turn it around one day with a lot of other great young players.”
