SIMMONS: Nylander the one Leaf you can't take your eyes off of in Battle of Ontario

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When trying to explain what it was about William Nylander that so enticed the Maple Leafs in the 2014 NHL draft, Dave Poulin, then a Leafs assistant, now an Ottawa Senators executive, was rather clear.

“He was the only player in the draft who could stickhandle in a phone booth,” said Poulin.

This is 11 years later now— Nylander turns 29 on Thursday — and the fictional phone booths are found all over the ice in the Battle of Ontario, with Nylander shifting in one direction or the other.

And so much of the time he is impossible to defend.

The road to this place was a long one from the impressive draft of 2014 — with Leon Draisaitl, Sam Reinhart, Aaron Ekblad, Sam Bennett, three of them Stanley Cup winners last June, all selected before the Leafs settled on Nylander with the eighth pick.

Nylander was never a bust of any kind, just a continuous work in progress before establishing himself as the big-time star Poulin forever believed he would be. He was a challenge for whomever was coaching him before this season — his bosses trying to figure out who he was, who he will be, what he will do on any given night and how they can harness all that skill, competitiveness and singularity, into a complete player of sorts.

Is he an original? Absolutely. Is he unusual? In a sport that adores conformity, he walks to no one’s beat but his own. He says what’s on his mind, intentionally choosing to go bare-chested for his on-camera interviews, and is sometimes funny, sometimes irreverent, sometimes irrelevant.

Until the game starts. And that’s not the question it used to be.

Through four games in the Battle of Ontario, only one player has been impossible to take your eyes off of. There are only a handful of breathtaking talents in the National Hockey League that are must-watch most nights and Nylander has emerged as one of them. Like so many stars, he plays his own game, impossible to copy, just as impossible to define. He has moves no one else has, a creativity at the highest level, and like all the greatest of individual acts in hockey, he has vision that most can’t begin to comprehend.

Auston Matthews has scored more goals than any player in hockey since he entered the NHL with Nylander already a Leaf in 2016. He has scored just one in the four games against Ottawa, below what is expected of him. In the words of Randy Carlyle, he’s been just all right for four games against Ottawa.

Nylander has one goal as well, set up five others, probably set up about three of four others that should have been goals, probably should have scored one or two more himself: That’s the way it works with Nylander.

He may be the best show in hockey east of Connor McDavid. He dances around, carries the puck, twists and turns, even the best defenders can’t edge and pivot and rotate the way Nylander does on the ice. He may be just about the only player in hockey who comes in on an opponent 1-on-4 and has the inner belief he can beat all four players and wind up scoring.

This season, Nylander finished second in the NHL in goal-scoring with 45. He never had been anywhere close to that high before. Last year, he finished 15th in goals, the year before 14th, and the year before that, 30th.

In the past, his coaches tried to figure out how and what to do with him and how best to utilize his immense skill. Mike Babcock didn’t think he shot the puck enough, considering how great his shot happens to be. Sheldon Keefe was often flabbergasted by Nylander’s talent, nights on, nights off, defensive disinterest, sometimes great, too many times not.

It’s been different with Craig Berube this season, in his first year coaching the Maple Leafs. He and Nylander seem to have found some common ground that works for both of them.

“Willy and I have a great relationship, it’s very open,” said Berube. “He comes to me when he’s concerned about things. I think that’s really healthy. He’s a competitor. He loves to score goals but if you look at the game (Saturday) night, I thought he was highly competitive. The puck battles and second and third effort he showed was exceptional.”

Nylander has been the best Leaf not named Matthew Knies in the first four games against Ottawa. Just two playoff seasons back, Keefe pushed Nylander to the bench, playing him just 14 minutes in a must-win game.
Nylander responded with a three-point night. Nothing is more Willy and unpredictable than that.

Nylander played a series-high 22:43 for him in Saturday’s overtime loss. The Leafs scored three goals: He made two of them possible.

This is Nylander’s 10th and best season in Toronto. Hockey players appear to be peaking at later ages than ever before: Nylander started slower than most of today’s greats. This is Nathan MacKinnon’s 12th season in Colorado, Nikita Kucherov’s 12th season in Tampa Bay, Draisaitl and McDavid’s 10th in Edmonton. None of them seem to be slowing down.

He may not accumulate points as rapidly as Kucherov,, MacKinnon or Draisaitl can. But he accumulates creative offence. He finds a way. He does all of that from a position on the Leafs’ second line, outplaying the big-name first-liners in the series against Ottawa, if not necessarily outscoring them.

ssimmons@postmedia.com
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