William Nylander had 11 points and won NHL Rookie of the Month for October, but his scoring pace dramatically declined in November (two goals and two assists in 11 games) and now after being scratched with an injury, the 20-year-old winger has been moved to the fourth line.
The 2014 top pick has shown the ability to take over games when he is on, but as with his play during last year’s Calder Cup Playoffs, the talented forward apparently needs special attention and motivation to draw out his best performance.
With the “Kid Line” of Zach Hyman, Auston Matthews and Nylander struggling for much of this month, Leafs coach Mike Babcock shook things up, shifting Connor Brown to the Matthews line on the road and moving Nylander with Nazem Kadri and Leo Komarov.
Matthews’ effort and defensive responsibilities did not decline during his 13-game goalless streak, but Babcock’s necessity to place Nylander with veterans on the road could be in part to cover up for his defensive shortcomings.
Nylander was a mysterious late scratch on Saturday with an upper body injury after participating in the morning skate prior to the Leafs – Capitals game. Peter Holland was inserted and Nikita Soshnikov was moved up to play with Kadri and Komarov, who successfully irritated the Capitals top unit of Niklas Backstrom and Alexander Ovechkin.
The Leafs practiced at the MasterCard Center in Etobicoke, ON on Monday, with Brown remaining on the line with Matthews and Soshnikov skating with Kadri.
Nylander skated on the fourth line with Matt Martin and Ben Smith and the Leafs head coach indicated that he will play in Edmonton on Tuesday.
“(Nylander is) gonna go in the lineup tomorrow and we’ll go from there.” Babcock said. “There is no message, just compete hard and do good things.”
The Leafs forward acknowledged his recent struggles and that playing on the fourth line after the club’s top three lines played well against Washington was logical.
“It’s completely understandable, I just gotta get back into the swing of things. I missed one game, I just want to get going again.” Nylander said.
Babcock has been known for pushing buttons of certain players to get the most out of them. He did that in Detroit with Johan Franzen and Henrik Zetterberg with successful results. It appears that this will be an ongoing scenario with Nylander and his head coach.
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The Calgary Flames continued their Eastern road trip in Brooklyn on Monday and Newsday’s
Arthur Staple reported that “15 or so teams (were) represented by scouts.”
Staple did not mention the Leafs specifically, but their presence would be consistent based on the attention that Toronto has paid the Flames in the last week.
Toronto Assistant GM Kyle Dubas was reportedly spotted in Buffalo for the Flames – Sabres game last Monday, Calgary GM Brad Treliving was listed on the scouting list for the Leafs – Capitals game at Air Canada Center on Saturday and
Sportsology’s Russ Cohen spotted Leafs Director of Pro Scouting Dave Morrison taking in the Flames – Flyers game in Philadelphia on Sunday night.
Based on their need for a young top-four blueliner, defensemen TJ Brodie and Dougie Hamilton would most likely be the targets for the Leafs.
Hamilton, 23, is signed through 2022 making $5.75 Million per season, while the 26-year-old Brodie has another three years left on his current deal at $4.654 Million per year.
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