Toronto Maple Leafs Need Nylander At Training Camp

William Nylander and the Toronto Maple Leafs need each other.

The Toronto Maple Leafs and William Nylander are both playing with fire as negotiations continue towards a new contract with the regular season rapidly approaching.

In recent days other restricted free agents such as Josh Morrissey and Darnell Nurse were able to ink new contracts with their respective clubs having only missed a few days of training camp. However, Nylander’s contract situation remains surrounded in mystery.

More from Puck Prose

• Detroit Red Wings 2023 Rookie Camp Has Plenty of Ups and Downs
• This Columbus Blue Jackets rookie doesn’t want to be forgotten
• 2 trades the Boston Bruins must make to secure the Stanley Cup
• 3 reasons the Avalanche won’t win the Stanley Cup in 2024
• This is a big year for Alex Turcotte and the Los Angeles Kings

The Maple Leafs need him in training camp as they prepare for the most anticipated season in decades in Toronto. The arrival of John Tavares along with the continued emergence of a young Maple Leaf core has seen hype and interest levels grow to areas not seen before. As a result, missing a major key player of the young core in Nylander to start the season would be a tremendous blow.

Nylander has posted back-to-back 61-point seasons playing on the right wing next to Auston Matthews. It’s a spot he’ll return to once his contract situation is eventually finalized. Yet the Maple Leafs can’t afford Nylander to miss any regular season games as his absence will no doubt affect his superstar llinemate as well as the team’s offensive production.

Matthews and Nylander have formed an impactful chemistry and are likely to spend the majority of the season playing together. For the most part, they’ve had Zack Hyman on the line to round out the trio, but it seems this season coach Mike Babcock intends to replace Hyman with Patrick Marleau.

The move would add more of a scoring punch to the line given Marleau’s 500 career goals, while also tapping into the playmaking abilities of both Matthews and Nylander.

What makes Nylander’s presence in camp so crucial is how it appears Babcock has already settled on pairs for his top two lines, the previously mentioned Matthews and Nylander, as well as Tavares and Mitch Marner. Babcock seems set in locking in the duos on separate lines while likely rotating the third player on each line based on performance. Hyman, Matthews, and Nylander have had great chemistry in the past so it wouldn’t be shocking to see the trio re-form even if they don’t start the season together.

By not having Nylander in camp it completely throws off Babcock’s ability to evaluate his top-two lines. It might seem easy to swap in a veteran like Marleau onto a new line, but the players still need time to adjust to each other’s play out on the ice. If Nylander doesn’t sign until late in training camp or even into the regular season, then the Maple Leafs won’t have any time to experiment with their loaded forward group or at least to its full potential.

Then there’s the issue of what if Nylander actually doesn’t sign until weeks into the regular season? With all the hype entering the 2018-19 season, not having Nylander to begin the year would be devastating for the Maple Leafs. As great as Tavares’ arrival to the team could be, the absence of Nylander would no doubt take away from the biggest free agent signing of the summer.

There’s also the factor of if Nylander does miss all of training camp and signs weeks into the regular season, what kind of shape will he be in? Players today are often more responsible than the generation before them about staying in game shape but Nylander hasn’t played a competitive NHL game since April. Who knows how many practices and games he’d need in order to return to the level fans are used to seeing from him.

Not to mention it seems every year, across all major team sports, a player holds out during a contract dispute. That player finally gets a new contract but then tries to do too much when he returns to the team in an attempt to make up for lost time. This often results in the player getting injured and missing even more time after just joining his team at the conclusion of the contract dispute.

The Maple Leafs are in a difficult position because they can’t afford to overpay Nylander with Marner and Matthews needing new contracts prior to the 2019-20 season. However, Toronto could see a lot positive vibes surrounding the team quickly erode if the Nylander contract isn’t resolved prior to the regular season.