William Nylander’s success at centre depends on this crucial factor
The Toronto Maple Leafs are experimenting with William Nylander at centre once again. Last season, Sheldon Keefe tried inserting Nylander at centre. Early on in camp, Nylander skated alongside Max Domi and Calle Jarnkrok.
That experiment didn’t last long enought to convince anyone that it wasn't an idea management forced on Keefe. Keefe barely even tried it - he gave Nylander one pre-season game and didn't give him much support.
Nylander went back to the wing and stayed there for the rest of the season. Nylander had a great year nearly topping 100 points. He would have gotten there had he not struggled during the last dozen games off at the end of the regular season.
This time around, Craig Berube is looking to rekindle Brad Treliving’s idea of moving Nylander to the middle. However, that’s nothing new. Nylander was originally drafted as a centre. But as is often the case, young centres get moved to the wing as they ease into the NHL game.
The reason why William Nylander’s move to centre could fail
Berube talked about Nylander's strengths and weaknesses as a player and they mostly summed up what is good and what is bad about this decision. Nylander's transition game and the abilty to skate the puck out of his zone and to carry it into the offensive zone with possession are the best parts of his game and likely to make him a greatr centre.
But Berube cautioned the obvious: Nylander's defensive game is weak and he has an occaisionaly tendancy to lose site of the details.
Nylander is hardly a defensive forward. He is often lazy on the backcheck, especially when he loses pucks. Unlike Auston Matthews or Mitch Marner, Nylander often gets lost in his own end. He doesn’t get back in plays, and can appear like he's not making an effort to pick up opposing players in the defensive zone
Those “details of the defensive part of the game” are what could derail Nylander’s shot at being a solid centre. Sure, he could score goals and set up other players around him. But unless he gets insulated by defensively responsible wingers, such as Calle Jarnkrok, the experiment could fail miserably.
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Personally, I like the idea of Nylander at centre. I think he could be great. However, he could become a defensive liability on the ice unless Berube can somehow flip a switch in Nylander’s head. Perhaps that’s the answer. Berube can shift Nylander’s mindset from cruise control to full-throttle, 200-foot hockey.