Nylander at Center Experiment Meets Familiar Fate for Maple Leafs

Welp, that about does it once again for the infamous William Nylander At Center Experiment. Similar to last year, the attempt to have Willy play the pivot seems to have come to an end before training camp even wraps up.

As Jonas Siegel writes in The Athletic, after just one full preseason game at center, "All signs point to Nylander beginning the season back on right wing, more or less ending the experiment," with John Tavares lining up between him and Max Domi on the second line.

Leafs practice lines:

Knies — Matthews — Marner
Domi — Tavares — Nylander
Pacioretty — Holmberg — McMann
Lorentz — Kämpf — Reaves
Dewar

*Robertson not practising

Rielly — Tanev
Ekman-Larsson — *Myers
Benoit — Timmins
Rifai — Hakanpää/Liljegren

*McCabe is not practising
— Jonas Siegel (@jonassiegel) October 4, 2024

“There was a lot of good things I liked about (the Nylander experiment),” head coach Craig Berube said. “But right now, this is where I got the lines set.”

It's interesting to note, as Siegel points out, that Berube and Nylander had a "somewhat animated discussion" before practice on Thursday.

And what was that conversation pertaining to?

“I told Willy, ‘Just keep banging away at it, keep working on it, keep taking reps in practice,’” Berube said. “It’s a work in progress. I’ll say it again. Right now, he needs to keep working on faceoffs and keep working on positioning of a centreman because it’s a very good option.”

Apparently not an option, however, says Siegel, however, that warrants anything more at the moment aside from "reps at practice".

“It takes time, it’s not just gonna happen overnight,” said Berube before concluding, “I don’t think we need to talk about it anymore, to be honest with you.”