William Nylander has never mattered more to Leafs, as a player and a leader

Mid-October is for overreactions in the NHL. When the leaves are still changing color, the sample sizes in the season are miniscule, and it’s dangerous putting too much stock into every performance or nugget of coachspeak.

But that doesn’t mean nothing matters. It’s all about the context. Take, for instance, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube criticizing right winger William Nylander earlier this week after losing both ends of a home-and-home against the Detroit Red Wings, expressing a need for Nylander to shoot more, get inside more, attack more, and that “it’s not enough.”

If Berube says that a year ago? The context is different. He’s merely trying to light a spark under one of his top scorers to help him shake off early-season sleepiness.

But this season? Top right winger Mitch Marner is gone. More than 20 minutes a night, including deployment on both special teams, are gone. A 102-point scorer is gone. The fifth-leading point-getter in franchise history is gone. A prominent dressing room leader is gone. Nylander, 29, is now pretty obviously the Leafs’ second-best player behind Auston Matthews. Expectations have changed.

Nylander’s year-to-year performance as one of the league’s deadliest scorers has never been in question. He’s riding a streak of three straight 40-goal seasons and four consecutive campaigns of 80 or more points. Arguably more than any other core member of this era, Nylander has maintained his playing standard in high-stakes moments during the Stanley Cup playoffs; he averages 31 goals and 74 points per 82 regular-season games and 32 goals and 71 points per 82 postseason games in his career.

But as Berube’s comments earlier this week, delivered so early in the season, seem to imply: Nylander will be looked to as more of an emotional tone setter for the team than he ever has. So when he and Berube had a conversation after Monday’s loss, it meant something, even three games into the Leafs’ 2025-26 schedule.

One day after the Thanksgiving disappointment, Nylander opted not to share details on the conversation, but it seemed to work, whatever was said. The Leafs bounced back with a 7-4 victory over the Nashville Predators Tuesday night. Nylander picked up an empty-net goal and two assists. His four shots on net were more than he managed in his first three games combined. His line with Matias Maccelli and John Tavares contributed a pair of goals and logged a staggering 80.51 expected goal share at 5-on-5, the best of any trio on either team.

“Willie drove the line with Johnny and Macelli – all three of them, but Willie did what he does,” Berube said Tuesday night after the win. “He had the puck, he was doing things, he’s making good decisions, driving it deep and doing what he does in the offensive zone. I thought they were responsible defensively. I was happy with the line. I thought they were very impactful tonight.”

It was a good night, but it’s just one night. More so than at any other point in his career, Nylander will need to show his teammates consistent passion and effort game to game. That may come more naturally than he’s given credit for, too. Yes, he’s quiet –  we reporters have to lean in as close as possible just so our recording devices pick up his voice in a scrum – but he’s as confident a player as you’ll find in the NHL, fitted with bulletproof swagger that has always suited him beautifully to such a high-pressure market. And he’s willingly, openly embracing the idea of becoming a more vocal leader in a dressing room that has undergone some notable turnover year over year among the forwards, adding Maccelli, Nicolas Roy, Dakota Joshua and Easton Cowan in place of Marner, Max Pacioretty, Pontus Holmberg and Ryan Reaves, with Scott Laughton and Steven Lorentz currently injured to boot.

“Yeah, that’s just part of growing as person, trying to be more of a vocal leader,” Nylander told Daily Faceoff Tuesday night. “Trying to step into that role a little bit.”

Coach callout be damned, Nylander quietly has seven points in his first four games this season. It’s a start, but the under-the-hood numbers at 5-on-5 show his actual play-driving, his generation of shots and scoring chances, has tanked compared to his career norms. It’s early enough that we can attribute the change to a small sample size for now, but he’ll have to remedy that trend if the Leafs want to remain a top contender in the Atlantic Division. His newfound leader mentality suggests he’ll do so soon.

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