Toronto Maple Leafs: William Nylander On the 3rd Line Proving Positive

It’s fair to say that William Nylander recently found himself in the dog house with Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe.

The Toronto Maple Leafs recently made a change to their season-long pairing of John Tavares and William Nylander.

On the offensive side of the puck, there were no concerns. However, the defensive frailties are likely what triggered the call to play the Swedish winger on the third line.  That, and an attempt to balance out the lineup.

The result appears to have been somewhat a stroke of genius, as he’s fit in tidily with his more defensive line mates David Kampf and Pierre Engvall. (All stats prior to last night’s game and from naturalstattrick.com).

Toronto Maple Leafs New Look 3rd Line Still Gets Results With William Nylander

In just over 30 minutes together at even-strength, the trio is producing positive Corsi results, with a score of 52.1%. They’ve been scored on just the once, while not contributing any goals yet.

Nylander is still able to top up his ice-time with powerplay minutes but is being forced into a position where he has to play more defensively responsible hockey.

The flip side is that he offers a defensive-minded line an offensive outlet, with his playmaking ability something that has been lacking, with all due respect to the injured Ondrej Kase, alongside Engvall and Kampf.

Take the recent victory over the Winnipeg Jets as an example of that lines’ usage. William Nylander was out there for far more 5-on-5 defensive zone face-offs than he might usually see.

Also factor that it was the grouping of Paul Stastny, Nikolaj Ehlers and Mark Scheifele they were lining up against most at 5-on-5; that’s certainly the Jets’ top-six names they were facing.

Fact is, the line wasn’t caved in by the Jets either. Clearly, whether we see it on the eye-test or not, Nylander is working hard enough as not to need to be singled out.

Perhaps the other big takeaway here is the fact that Ilya Mikheyev has looked decent on the Toronto Maple Leafs’ second line in Nylander’s place.

In fact, given that the Leafs were struggling to get John Tavares going just a few weeks back, this move could end up proving permanent, at least for now.

Indeed, it makes the depth chart a little scarier for opposing teams when it comes to match-ups.

Nylander provides the offensive vision and playmaking that Marner and Matthews offer on the top line, despite being on a line that is put over the boards with a priority on checking and playing a defensively solid game.

Add the fact that Tavares is running down the middle on that second line and there’s a certain confidence you can have in the Toronto Maple Leafs when it comes to rolling their top-nine.

Now, long-term you don’t want to pay a third-line winger $7 million per season, but realistically, William Nylander isn’t that. He’s a $7 million winger, surprisingly on a career year, that simply happens to be on the third line.  Having a star player on every line makes the Leafs even harder to play, so while less ice time might not benefit Nylander’s counting numbers, it could make the team much better.

Then again, in terms of ice-time versus Winnipeg, only Matthews, Marner and Tavares saw more among forwards. It’s not like he’s about to be under utilized.

Yes, there’s an argument to be made that he saw plenty of powerplay action, but that’s a useful option to have. A slightly more defensively responsible Nylander on the third line can still shine on the man-advantage.

Indeed, he can still step onto the second or fourth line for an extra shift here and there too. It’s not like he’s being wasted.

His three-point night, ignoring the fact they all came on the powerplay, shows that he doesn’t appear to be negatively affected by the demotion. In fact, he seems a little more motivated out of it all.