Line Combos: Does Nylander at 3C solve depth issues?

[The Podium]

No surprise that the cap is tight, even more so if the Leafs do in fact sign AP. I know a lot of posters here have concerns about the bottom 6 depth but would a shuffling of the players we already have solve that issue?

I know it has been discussed in other threads but lets get it all in one place.

With 3 strong Cs and at least 1 good winger per line, the other winger can take a bit of a hit and the Leafs can still ice a balanced lineup.

XXXX - Matthews - Marner
Robertson - Tavares - XXXX
Mikheyev - Nylander - Hyman

The XXXXs likely have to be filled by a combination of league minimum vets (Maroon?) or players in the system (Barabanov?)

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[kb]

No surprise that the cap is tight, even more so if the Leafs do in fact sign AP. I know a lot of posters here have concerns about the bottom 6 depth but would a shuffling of the players we already have solve that issue?

I know it has been discussed in other threads but lets get it all in one place.

With 3 strong Cs and at least 1 good winger per line, the other winger can take a bit of a hit and the Leafs can still ice a balanced lineup.

XXXX - Matthews - Marner
Robertson - Tavares - XXXX
Mikheyev - Nylander - Hyman

The XXXXs likely have to be filled by a combination of league minimum vets (Maroon?) or players in the system (Barabanov?)

I think if you switch Robertson and Mikheyev, that would be an excellent basis for the top 3 lines. Each of those 3rd liners are puck hounds with speed, and I could see that causing fits for the opposition. It would probably be the best third line in a long time.

 

[CertifiedGoat]

Nylander didnt look good at center. He's a winger.

I guess worst case scenario he could play there, but he's better off playing with Tavares.

 

[TML Dynasty]

I’d like to try it for sure.

 

[smitty10]

Nylander has never played very well at center. Ideally, he plays the wing.

If we need a 3C that badly then we may as well move him for a 3C and middle 6 forward. No sense spending $7m at the 3C position.

 

[Suntouchable13]

Not very enthusiastic about it. He is a top 6 winger, he is not a 3C. Besides, he is making too much money for that. He needs top 6 ice time and production to justify that salary. If you put him at 3 C, there is only so much ice time to go around. Right now, we are not even built to be a balanced team. We are a top heavy team. You need to give your 10M+ guys lots of ice time, if you put Willy at 3C, how much ice time will be left for him then?

 

[BertCorbeau]

I like the idea. I think he can be a solid centre, and starting him out on the third line in a sheltered role would be a good transition plan.

 

[justashadowof]

Nylander isn't ideal as a 3rd line center. I'd prefer that he's never out on ice matched up directly against the opposition's stud center as that's playing away from his strengths. Plus he'd be out on the ice with lesser offensive talents than he is on the top 2 lines. I'd be happy to consider him to be emergency depth at center as a forward capable of centering a line in a pinch.

The best way to turn Nylander into a 3rd line C? Through trade.

 

[7even]

Yes. It's a poor use of him though.

 

[The CyNick]

Can't afford AP right now

 

[The Podium]

Not very enthusiastic about it. He is a top 6 winger, he is not a 3C. Besides, he is making too much money for that. He needs top 6 ice time and production to justify that salary. If you put him at 3 C, there is only so much ice time to go around. Right now, we are not even built to be a balanced team. We are a top heavy team. You need to give your 10M+ guys lots of ice time, if you put Willy at 3C, how much ice time will be left for him then?

Figured we can do an ice time breakdown of:

1st: 20 mins
2nd: 18 mins
3rd: 16 mins
4th: 6 mins

Nylander isn't ideal as a 3rd line center. I'd prefer that he's never out on ice matched up directly against the opposition's stud center as that's playing away from his strengths. Plus he'd be out on the ice with lesser offensive talents than he is on the top 2 lines. I'd be happy to consider him to be emergency depth at center as a forward capable of centering a line in a pinch.

The best way to turn Nylander into a 3rd line C? Through trade.

He wouldnt have to be a traditional 3rd C rather have 3 x 1b lines. I also paired him with Mikheyev and Hyman to cover for his defensive deficiencies

 

[A1LeafNation]

Eventually Nylander will be the second line center as Tavares will transfer to wing later on in his contract.

He has 1600 faceoffs in the last 4 years and has a 51% win rate. He plays a 200 ft game however not too good in his own end.

I think he has been getting better in his own end (Matthews took a big step this year), so there is promise.

For this year, wouldn't mind him getting reps at center. You can't get better if you don't play there often. I think Keefe played him at center in the AHL.

 

[egd27]

Eventually JT will probably have to move to the wing and we will need a #2C. Perhaps starting Nylander at 3C could begin the transition process.

Or is that kind of longer term thinking not part of the current plan?

 

[The Podium]

Eventually JT will probably have to move to the wing and we will need a #2C. Perhaps starting Nylander at 3C could begin the transition process.

Or is that kind of longer term thinking not part of the current plan?

That was part of my rationale yes. Especially with no organizational Cs looking promising enough for that role.

 

[Nineteen67]

Nylander would have to prove he’s reliable in his own end.

A move like that and adding an overrated D would propel the Leafs into another off-season championship and likely get some preseason cup favorite votes from the TO media.

I don’t like experiments and going into a season with a bunch of “IF this guy does something he’s never done before”scenarios. Three or four of those is what consistently will keep you around the 15th best team in league.

Everyone in the hockey world knows what this teams needs to take the next steps. If they don’t address those needs, shuffling the deck chairs won’t fix anything.

 

[34]

Nylander on the 3rd line is a waste, no matter what position. He is a legit 1st line winger.

Kadri was perfect at the 3 C. It had Toronto with the deepest C core in the NHL.

Matthews
Tavares
Kadri

 

[Merrrlin]

No surprise that the cap is tight, even more so if the Leafs do in fact sign AP. I know a lot of posters here have concerns about the bottom 6 depth but would a shuffling of the players we already have solve that issue?

I know it has been discussed in other threads but lets get it all in one place.

With 3 strong Cs and at least 1 good winger per line, the other winger can take a bit of a hit and the Leafs can still ice a balanced lineup.

XXXX - Matthews - Marner
Robertson - Tavares - XXXX
Mikheyev - Nylander - Hyman

The XXXXs likely have to be filled by a combination of league minimum vets (Maroon?) or players in the system (Barabanov?)

I truly believe he should be playing C.

What I am not sure about is if it should be #2C with Tavares on the wing, or #3C.

 

[Buds17]

I just don't think enough ice time will be there for Nylander in the 3C role. The salaries for the big 4 make sense in part because they can be paired together in various combinations.

 

[The Podium]

Dermott + for Georgiev

Have nearly 7 mill for 2 top 9 wingers, 2 4th liners and a 7th D

 

[Suntouchable13]

Figured we can do an ice time breakdown of:

1st: 20 mins
2nd: 18 mins
3rd: 16 mins
4th: 6 mins



He wouldnt have to be a traditional 3rd C rather have 3 x 1b lines. I also paired him with Mikheyev and Hyman to cover for his defensive deficiencies

I just think that if we continue to have 40M tied up in 4 forwards, we shouldn’t strive for balance because it’s futile.

 

[Morgs]

I'd much rather we have two legit lines that play a lot and two lines that don't hurt us than make Nylander play ~5 minutes less 5v5 than usual.

Think about teams like Boston & Colorado. They stack their top-2 lines and play an all-out offensive style with them. Basically every offensive faceoff, they go on the ice. Their other lines play boring trap defensive hockey with the intention of not giving up chances/goals.

I'd much rather we gut the bottom-6, grab solid defensive players in FA and don't expect any scoring from the depth, and make out expensive guys score 80% of the time.

 

[The Podium]

I'd much rather we have two legit lines that play a lot and two lines that don't hurt us than make Nylander play ~5 minutes less 5v5 than usual.

Think about teams like Boston & Colorado. They stack their top-2 lines and play an all-out offensive style with them. Basically every offensive faceoff, they go on the ice. Their other lines play boring trap defensive hockey with the intention of not giving up chances/goals.

I'd much rather we gut the bottom-6, grab solid defensive players in FA and don't expect any scoring from the depth, and make out expensive guys score 80% of the time.

And theyre out. Tampa last night was running:

Palat - Point - Kucherov
Killorn - Cirelli - Johnson
Goodrow - Gourde - Coleman
Maroon - Paquette - Stamkos

Good player driving each of their 4th lines with another good player and a role player on each.

 

[justashadowof]

I'd much rather we have two legit lines that play a lot and two lines that don't hurt us than make Nylander play ~5 minutes less 5v5 than usual.

Think about teams like Boston & Colorado. They stack their top-2 lines and play an all-out offensive style with them. Basically every offensive faceoff, they go on the ice. Their other lines play boring trap defensive hockey with the intention of not giving up chances/goals.

I'd much rather we gut the bottom-6, grab solid defensive players in FA and don't expect any scoring from the depth, and make out expensive guys score 80% of the time.

This shouldn't even have to be said but I'm glad you did. The notion that every line should be a dynamic scoring line is ridiculous. First thing it's near-impossible to carry that much talent due to the cap. Secondly the goal should be that your 3rd/4th lines can manage to break even when they're caught out against the opposition's 1st/2nd lines. Have the 3rd/4th lines stifle/irritate the opposition while breaking even overall offensively. As far as I'm concerned, you win a lot of games in that scenario with stacked 1st/2nd lines.

 

[Morgs]

And theyre out. Tampa last night was running:

Palat - Point - Kucherov
Killorn - Cirelli - Johnson
Goodrow - Gourde - Coleman
Maroon - Paquette - Stamkos

Good player driving each of their 4th lines with another good player and a role player on each.

Okay, well I watched a lot of Tampa because I had Kuch, Point, and Killorn in fantasy. They ran most of the season something similar to this as their top-6:

Palat-Point-Kuch
Killorn-Cirelli-Stamkos

The reason why it looked like that yesterday was because Stamkos was coming back from injury. They have solid players everywhere because their lack of tax made it so they could save ~1M on all of the Kuch/Point/Hedman/Stamkos contracts, which allows them to have a Blake Coleman on the 3rd line and still be able to have McDonagh, Vas, Killorn, Johnson, etc.

There's no possible reason to devoid one of Matthews/Tavares from getting one of Nylander/Marner on their line. It would just mean Nylander (arguably our 2nd best player last season) would play significantly less 5v5, and away from one of our superstars. It would be crippling our elite 2 lines to make 1 elite line and two good ones.

 

[Stephen]

I kind of want to try Marner at center. When we drafted him there was the question of whether we could convert him, and he already kills penalties so there’s some foundation in terms of defensive responsibilities. Marner’s been incredibly sheltered with veteran support his entire career. Wouldn’t mind seeing him on any line as the alpha between two lesser players. I’d even try a Marner-Nylander line.

The year Matthews was playing with Kapanen and Johnsson, he basically put $7 million into their pockets so I think could make it work with anybody.

Tavares should be put on a line with 2 other grinders and let them do their ugly down low work.