William Nylander Reduced Ice Time With the Toronto Maple Leafs: New Coaching Strategy or Player Performance?

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Chris Gerics
October 28, 2024 (1:26 PM)

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In a worrying trend for the Toronto Maple Leafs, William Nylander's ice time has shrunk. Is it part of a new coaching strategy or a case of early-season struggles?

The Toronto Maple Leafs have lost three in a row and have looked completely unlike themselves recently. During the Bruins game on Saturday, head coach Craig Berube played his top line a whole lot, and given they were the only ones who seemingly had life during that game; it's for good reason.

But a worrying sign is the deflation of the BMW line of Bobby McMann, Max Domi, and William Nylander. After such a hot start to the season, they've gone ice cold, and it's not a good look to see such a negative turnaround. Toronto's lacking a lot of center depth right now, especially with John Tavares' diminished ice time and his lack of production. Toronto has a lot of work to do when it comes to figuring things out but they could start with playing their second-best player more often.

William Nylander's Not Playing Enough

Craig Berube's reluctance to play William Nylander more could be by design or some slight oversight, but whatever it is isn't working. Averaging nearly two minutes less this season than for his career, the Maple Leafs' arguable second-best player is not seeing the ice enough. Whether it's a strategy, whether it's still having a bit of remorse over another failed move to center, Nylander is suffering.

Perhaps it's also due to carelessness like this double-minor penalty against Boston:

Mitch Marner logged 26 minutes to Nylander's 18. There is no excuse why Berube would leave Nylander off for 8 minutes even if he's going through a little bit of a slump. Often the bright spot in dark times, Nylander, much like Marner, can truly impact a game. Marner's knock is that he doesn't shoot enough, and perhaps putting Nylander in his place would lead to more goals. It's worth a shot at least, it's not like Toronto is succeeding currently.

Desperate for an offensive spark, no one can bring one like Nylander. If Toronto wants to break out of this funk they're currently in, perhaps they should start by playing their second-best goal scorer more often.