William Nylander at center is an experiment worth making for Toronto Maple Leafs

Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

When the Toronto Maple Leafs drafted William Nylander in 2014, it was thought that he’d help add to the team’s center depth.

But nearly a decade later, Nylander has spent most of his pro career playing on the wing, usually in the top six with either John Tavares or Auston Matthews leading the charge. But coach Sheldon Keefe will give it another chance, telling the media on Wednesday that Nylander will start camp as a center and seeing what happens next. It was new GM Brad Treliving who presented Keefe with the idea of Nylander up the middle.

According to Hockey Reference, Nylander took 59 faceoffs in 2022-23 with a 42.4 percent success rate. He has a 50.7 percent faceoff rate in 1,790 attempts over his career, but Nylander hasn’t taken double-digit faceoffs since 2019-20, when he finished with a flat 50 percent success rate.

So he’s no stranger to playing down the middle, but he’s not as successful as Matthews (52.6 percent on 6,795 attempts) or Tavares (51.3 percent on 12,236 attempts).

“We’ll commit to it for a bit here,” Keefe said. “(We’re) not committing to any sort of specific period of time, but just to say it’s not going to be a one-off or a one-day thing or a one preseason game. We want to give it some time to come together just to see what that looks like.”

Tavares could play on the wing at points, but making Nylander the team’s third-line center could actually have some significant benefits. The Leafs have some of the best wing depth they’ve had in quite some time, aided by the arrivals of Max Domi, Tyler Bertuzzi and Matthew Knies. Any one of them is capable of taking the No. 1 LW spot while also being dangerous deeper down. If Toronto can get three truly dangerous scoring lines, watch out.

Last season, the Maple Leafs acquired Ryan O’Reilly before the trade deadline to help shore up the center depth. It helped create the deepest middle group the Leafs have had in the Matthews era, and it gave them more spruce for the team’s first-round series win. But O’Reilly bolted to Nashville on July 1, leaving a big hole that largely went unaddressed.

That meant David Kampf would likely become the No. 3 center, which is less than ideal. Kampf’s value is maximized in a fourth-line defensive center role, something that otherwise could be filled by Dylan Gambrell or Pontus Holmberg.

Nylander, 27, set career highs in goals (40) and assists (47) last year as a winger, good for second in team scoring. So a trip to the third line could impact his 5-on-5 production, but the idea is about making this team harder to play against. The additions of Domi and Bertuzzi help support that, and a third-line center role for Nylander would give them its most dangerous third-line weapon in years.

Nylander’s versatility should open up options for him all throughout the lineup. But getting him comfortable with the idea of playing down the middle early could come in handy.

“I think Willy can do whatever he puts his mind to. He’s that good,” Keefe said. “I push Willy more because I really do believe in his ability.”

But it’s been done before. They’ve tried Nylander at center for small bits of action in recent years. The biggest experiments came in the Mike Babcock era, though, so it’s worth trying again with Keefe leading the charge.

Maybe it’s a short-term experiment. Maybe they try him out at center for a few games and decide they’d rather top-load the top six. We know Nylander can score, and with his contract status up in the air, he won’t want to jeopardize anything. But he wants to win, and spreading out the scoring threats could be how that’s done.

Teams with good forward depth win the titles. William Karlsson was Vegas’ third-line center when the Golden Knights won the Cup. He had 53 points in the regular season and 17 points in the playoffs. The preseason is the time to experiment, and it’s good to see the Leafs trying something different after years of the same methods not yielding good enough results.

Perhaps Toronto’s answer for the third-line center role was there all along. Only time will tell.

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William Nylander at center is an experiment worth making for Toronto Maple Leafs

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