It really felt like it would be different this time.
The idea was the same, the coach was different. And all that William Nylander asked of that coach, Craig Berube, was that he be given time. If the Maple Leafs wanted him to move to centre, or try to move to centre, that is, they needed to allow him the opportunity to adjust. He hadn’t played the position regularly in eight years, since before he was even in the NHL.
This couldn’t be like last fall, when the Leafs announced that Nylander would be moving to centre on the first day of training camp, only to pull the plug on the entire experiment after two preseason games.
In the end, it was just like last fall.
All signs point to Nylander beginning the season back on right wing, more or less ending the experiment one year to the day after Sheldon Keefe shut it down.
Berube and Nylander had a somewhat animated discussion ahead of practice a day earlier, the subject of which may have been just that – the end of Nylander’s move to centre.
“I told Willy, ‘Just keep banging away at it, keep working on it, keep taking reps in practice,’” Berube said of their conversation. “It’s a work in progress. I’ll say it again. Right now, he needs to keep working on faceoffs and keep working on positioning of a centreman because it’s a very good option.”
Just not an option the Leafs coach wants to explore any further, beyond the odd rep at practice.
Nylander ended up playing just one full preseason game at centre. He got hurt shortly into his second game there. In yet another parallel from last season, he appears set to start the coming season on a line with John Tavares and Max Domi.
Which means the Leafs are right back in the same place as they were at the end of last season, with questions at centre beyond Auston Matthews, which prompted the Nylander experiment being reborn in the first place.
It’s possible it wouldn’t have worked regardless. But why not see it through, if only for a little while this fall? Why start the process at all if the followthrough wasn’t going to be there – again?
“He’s had a lot of reps,” Berube said. “He takes reps every day in practice.”
Berube first broached the possibility with Nylander soon after he was hired as Leafs coach. He called again later on in the summer, presumably after the front office failed to net a centre in free agency, and said it was a go.
Nylander said he just wanted time. As he explained it to me recently, “If I’m willing to play centre, I can’t just step (on the ice) for two practices before the first game and then – it’s like (I’m) game-ready. I need time.”
Berube acknowledged as much when asked if he might revisit the idea at a later point. “It takes time,” he said. “It’s not just gonna happen overnight.”
Then he added, “ I don’t think we need to talk about it anymore, to be honest with you.”
The Leafs were asking a lot of Nylander, and knew as much. He was one of the top wingers in the game coming off the best season of his NHL career. He had been a winger for maybe 98 percent of his NHL games. It’s centres who end up moving to the wing, not the other way around.
Nylander was game to give it a try anyway as he began a new eight-year contract. And he was serious about it. He changed the way he prepared in the offseason. He practiced like he was a centre. He knew he would need time though. He guessed it would take him as many as 10 games to feel comfortable, the first month of the season essentially.
“There was a lot of good things I liked about it,” Berube said of the experiment. “But right now, this is where I got the lines set.”
For today, Tavares, 34 and entering his 16th NHL season, reclaims his second-line centre job.
Which means no easing of responsibilities and minutes in all likelihood.
After that? The Leafs could end up starting the year with Pontus Holmberg in the three hole, followed by (maybe?) David Kämpf. That was precisely how this team lined up for Games 1-5 against Boston, which didn’t go great.
A Tavares-led unit excelled defensively but generated nothing at the other end. Holmberg didn’t register a point all series.
It’s what prompted a close look at the centre market in free agency (all too expensive for the Leafs’ tastes) and the idea of returning Nylander there, potentially, this fall.
Berube could send Domi back to centre, a role he played for much of last season.
That doesn’t feel like a real solution for playoff hockey though.
Bailing out of the Nylander experiment then before it even had a chance to marinate, and perhaps even work, more than likely means that GM Brad Treliving will have to seek an alternative through trade, which means spending (limited) assets on a position that might have been fortified internally.
Timothy Liljegren’s place with the Leafs feels tenuous (again)
Here’s what we know:
The Leafs were open to trading Timothy Liljegren in the summer as the threat of arbitration loomed. They eventually brought him back on a two-year deal. He has already fallen down the depth chart and maybe even out of the opening night lineup.
At practice on Friday, it was Conor Timmins who again landed the right-side gig on a prospective third pair with Simon Benoit. Liljegren was the third wheel to Marshall Rafai and Jani Hakanpää. (Philippe Myers even got the nod to fill in for the injured Jake McCabe.)
A healthy Hakanpää would surely leap over Liljegren.
Does Timothy Liljegren have a place with the Leafs? (Dan Hamilton / Imagn Images)
Berube said Liljegren needed to be “a little bit heavier in his battles” and move pucks “quicker and simplify the game.”
Liljegren earning $3 million on the cap (for this season and next) as the seventh defenceman wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Does Liljegren earning $3 million on the cap (for this season and next) have any trade value? Would it be wise for the Leafs, with an older blue line with injury questions, be wise to trade the youngest of the bunch?
Is there a move to be made up front?
It’s feeling crowded at forward.
Nylander, Tavares, Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies, Mitch Marner, Domi, Bobby McMann, Nick Robertson, Ryan Reaves, Holmberg, Kämpf, Connor Dewar, Steven Lorentz, Max Pacioretty, Calle Järnkrok. (Easton Cowan’s chances appear over.)
That’s a lot of players.
I’ve been thinking a lot about someone like Kämpf, earning $2.4 million on the cap as the fourth-line centre.
Could the Leafs sign Lorentz, still on a PTO, for less than half of that and have him fill those duties? Could they even move Kämpf, who has this year and two more after that, on his deal if they wanted to?
Where does Järnkrok fit under Berube? He’s barely played in the preseason because of injuries, missing practice on Friday one day after he played on the third line of a lineup that didn’t include many regulars.
Is Pacioretty still getting a deal?
(Top photo: Michael Chisholm / NHLI via Getty Images)
