TORONTO – Well, this is a bit different.
This is a group being pegged the Stanley Cup favourite by Vegas bookies and NHL stars alike – an unfamiliar place for an organization that has gone more than 14 years since last playing beyond the first round.
It is due to the sharp progression of the last two campaigns and the arrival of John Tavares, who is still being celebrated more than two months after returning home on a $77-million, seven-year contract. Camp will bring his first game as a Maple Leaf, and potentially his first goal, and should feel like an extended touchdown dance in a city where many folks are still coming around to the idea that his decision in free agency wasn’t just a dream.
As the Leafs reported for medicals at their suburban practice facility on Thursday morning, there was enough hoopla to quiet the only story with any real news value at the outset of this camp: The whereabouts of William Nylander.
The 22-year-old winger isn’t here, as expected, after failing to agree on a new contract over the off-season. He was a notable omission on the list of 73 invited players released by the team on Wednesday afternoon.
“Marleau, Marner, Matthews … Mueller, O’Brien,” it read.
Now, the only way this becomes something more than a footnote is if Nylander remains absent in the days leading up to the Oct. 3 regular-season opener against Montreal.
Until then, it is a mere nuisance for head coach Mike Babcock – who’d prefer to plug him into his expected spot at 1RW alongside Auston Matthews and Patrick Marleau – and something for the rest of us to talk about. But it’s hard to ignore the reality that these situations typically get resolved without much animus. Nylander is one of eight RFA’s currently unsigned league-wide.
This will not be a camp with much emphasis placed on the battle for jobs. The decisions lie only on the fringes of the roster, with Curtis McElhinney trying to hold off Calder Cup champion Garret Sparks and keep his backup goaltending job (unlikely), and newcomer Par Lindholm looking to establish himself as the preferred option at fourth-line centre.
There’s also a large group of contenders for the sixth or seventh spot on the blue-line with Justin Holl, Igor Ozighanov, Andreas Borgman and Calle Rosen among those vying for a spot with the Leafs rather than the Marlies.
But what these next few weeks are truly about is building towards becoming the kind of team worthy of the hype they’ve already been getting. We will get some hints at how Babcock plans to keep his three-headed-centre-monster happy – although with eight exhibition games it’ll be a while before Tavares, Matthews and Nazem Kadri are in the same lineup together – and how he’ll handle assignments on new-look power-play units.
That’s an open-ended question with the free-agent departures of James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak, and the need to get Matthews more ice time at 5-on-4. The fact it’s even a talking point shows just how far the organization has come in the three years since Babcock arrived here and promptly oversaw a last-place finish.
The bar has been raised. They are looking to push it much higher again.
“We want to be a contender for years to come, but we’ve got to earn the right to do that,” Kadri said earlier this week. “No team’s going to give it to us or hand it over. Over the last few years this team has headed in the right direction, and the direction we’ve wanted to go in.
“A lot of hard work’s gone into that behind the scenes.”
Now, it begins anew on the ice where everyone can see it.
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