TORONTO – Mike Babcock says he normally wouldn’t look back and check on a specific player’s ice time, but William Nylander’s current deployment is not normal.
All season long, Babcock has been quick to sing the praises of all the Toronto Maple Leafs rookies, but he (not unlike critics and fans) has also identified a subset within an unusually large contingent of first-year guys.
“The three with elite skill,” he’s called them.
Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, and William Nylander.
Nylander is the only one of that high-ceiling trio seeing time outside of the Maple Leafs’ top six. Save the two periods Sean Monahan was demoted to a checking role for Calgary last week, Nylander is about as highly skilled a fourth-line centre as you’ll find.
“Someone else is playing in his spot, and they’re playing well,” Babcock explained Wednesday in advance of the Leafs’ home game versus the Minnesota Wild. That would be another rookie, Connor Brown, who’s replaced Nylander on Matthews’ wing. (Agitator Nikita Soshnikov has graduated from the fourth line and looks good on Nazem Kadri’s shutdown unit.)
“We have 10 guys for nine spots, and right now this works good for us, so that’s what we’re doing,” said Babcock.
Babcock made a point of calling attention to Nylander’s ice time. Due to steady power-play looks and the odd bump-up shift with Matthews, the 19:30 Nylander skated in Calgary last Wednesday and 17:01 in Vancouver Saturday are above his 16:11 seasonal average.
Want to stream 56 Leafs games this season? Sign up for Sportsnet NOW
Yes, he’s practising and starting as a fourth-line checking centre between Matt Martin and Ben Smith, but he looks particularly dangerous during his promotions.
Nylander is tied for fifth overall in rookie scoring with 16 points, with his most recent point coming in Edmonton, where he skated just 12:07 but set up old pal Matthews for the game’s opening score.
(Brown, it should be noted, is still skating less than Nylander and has not registered a point since the switch.)
“It’s a little bit of an adjustment for sure, but it’s been good. It’s been fun,” Nylander, 20, says of the line juggle. “It’s completely understandable.”
Babcock has denied that he’s sending a message. He also shut down the theory that he’s trying to get Nylander, a natural centre, time in the middle to groom him long-term. The demotion was made after Nylander sat out one game, Nov. 26’s victory over the Capitals, due to an upper-body injury suffered at practice.
This sparked enough trade-bait speculation (though no hard evidence) that Babcock felt it necessary to assure both Nylander and cap-friendly first-line winger James van Riemsdyk that Toronto has no plans to move them.
“It comes a surprise. I wasn’t expecting it, but I’m here for now,” Nylander told reporters Tuesday, smiling off the noise. “You just see some stuff on Twitter when you get tagged. You don’t go and read stuff about yourself. I didn’t think they were going to trade me… hopefully.”
There’s evidence of Nylander’s defensive responsibility, and he’s not exactly the type of talent you just deal away, according to Minnesota’s Devan Dubnyk.
Dubnyk — who leads all NHL goalies in save percentage and goals against average — turned away three Nylander shots in the kid’s third-ever NHL game last March. The goalie noticed a more deadly threat when Nylander set up a goal in Minnesota in October.
“When we played them here last year, it was one of his first games. Like anybody, he just didn’t seem as confident,” Dubnyk said.
“Last game, he looked like he’d played in the league for years. You can see he’s confident. He was skating fast and making plays. That’s what’s exciting for him: having an opportunity to play, and on a good team. You don’t want to send a guy out on a team that loses all the time. Now they have young players on a team that’s capable of winning. Babcock’s going to make sure they’re doing the right things.”
Right now, that includes a fourth-line assignment many on the outside find difficult to understand.
