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The Toronto Maple Leafs made a bit of news regarding injury updates and potential lineup moves on the opening of their 2023-24 training camp at the Ford Performance Centre in Etobicoke, ON on Wednesday.
The biggest news was made by head coach Sheldon Keefe, who indicated that they would start camp with William Nylander shifting from wing to center. The 27-year-old was drafted as a center in 2014, but was quickly moved to the wing due to some defensive issues earlier in his career.
"It's something we have considered. I've talked to Willie about it. (Leafs GM Brad Treliving) and I have talked a lot through the offseason about it." Keefe said. "Willie's moved to center at different times since I've been here. Moving from wing to center, I think it's a lot more difficult on the fly than it is to move from center to wing, so giving him some opportunity to grow into that position through camp and have experience and confidence to do it gives us a chance to see what it looks like, how it affects Willie's game, but also how it affects our team and the flow of our team."
This move could be interpreted in a number of ways. With the expectation that John Tavares will move to the wing at some point over the next couple years, it is possible that Treliving is looking to find out if he has a potential replacement as a second-line center on his roster, and those make it worth it to extend Nylander before he becomes an unrestricted free agent.
The other possibility is that teams interested in trading for Nylander would be more intrigued by him if he is effective up the middle, thus increasing the Leafs leverage to demand a bigger return in a deal.
GM Brad Treliving provided an update on the injured players to start training camp. Defenseman Jake Muzzin expectedly will not play this season after re-injuring his neck at the beginning of last season. Goalie Matt Murray will be undergoing an extensive but unspecified surgery that will entail a long-time recovery.
"The surgical procedure will be something that he was dealing with. It wasn't in an event, he aggravated himself over the summer, but what was he's going through prior." Treliving said. "We're not necessarily focused on timeframes right now. It's let's get this done... let's get it done correctly. Let's start the process of rehabbing and then we'll see where that leads us to but this is months, not days or weeks."
With the Leafs cap situation and the expectation that Murray will be out long-term, it is almost a certainty that we will not see him in a Toronto uniform again.
Bobby McMann is still recovering from an injury that kept him from playing late in the season and in the Calder Cup Playoffs, but will slowly ramp up his participation in training camp. Ty Voit and Braeden Kressler were injured in Traverse City, but preliminary indications were that their injuries were not significant.
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