JVR and Bozak are terrible 5 on 5.
Johnsson-Nylander-Kapanen is not even comparable to JVR-Bozak-Brown 5 on 5. They will actually be able to forecheck and make plays.
hyberbole
He doesn't have the type of game that translates to being a successful center, despite actually having played center in this league with good results? All that's been lacking is high-end even strength production when he's moved to the middle, but that's not easy considering that he's mainly played with rather limited wingers.
There are plenty of successful centers in this league without much nastiness to their game. The team that are two wins away from being Stanley Cup Champions have very little nastiness in their top two centers. It's not a requisite.
Nik Backstrom has a lot of nastiness and is a relentless forechecker, he creates room for himself not only because of his elite skating and skill level, but because he established his level of nasty early in his career, the guy possesses a very sharp stick. he's willing to work through traffic and retain command of the puck, and he wins board battles with regularity
Kuznetsov makes a lot of room for himself, just by his size alone and his tenacity in puck battles, he's as strong as most Dmen in the league, his bouts of inconsistency are what keeps him of being thought of as a Barkov type
Nylander doesn't have those same qualities, he rarely moves the puck through traffic and he really doesn't get engaged along the boards with any regularity. He's not an overly powerful guy and mostly finds his success with finesse
Yeah, and these guys saw an immediate drop off in their performance as they switched to the position they are not suited for. That hasn't been the case for Nylander. On the contrary, most underlying individual metrics have him actually improving when he moves to the middle. Sure the production isn't as good. That might be because he changes his most frequent linemate from superstar Matthews to 28 point Brown.
There are tons of prospects who play center and then immediately turn into wingers when they reach the professional leagues. A large part of the wingers in NHL followed that route. Nylander on the other hand played center in SHL, played center in AHL, and has played about 40 games as center in the NHL in his first 2½ seasons coming into his 22-year season. There's no similarity there.
you may denigrate Connor Brown all you like, but Browns efficiency with Matthews rivals that of Nylanders and the reason why he's Babcocks guy when Willie goes though those periods when he doesn't seem interested in getting fully engaged and end's up in a slump.
How much centre did he actually play in the Sve-1?
his first year his father mostly played the centres role over the course of the 18 games William started w/Rogle
his second year he is credited with starting 21 games, how many of those was he a de-facto centre? I'm not talking about games he may have taken FO's in. I'm talking about the guy driving a line
Even in the WC where he won an MVP award he wasn't a full time centre.
In all seriousness, I have never seen him as a full time NHL centre, I don't think the Leafs brass does either, but their still in the experiment stage with him. He just has too many bouts of inconsistent play. He has trouble maintaining focus in the defensive zone especially when he doesn't have the puck is a knock that has followed him around his whole career. When he is absolutely engaged he could be considered to be in the above average class of NHL wingers, can you imagine him giving the Leafs the type of A category of effort and determination Pasta gives the B's every night, or Kucherov, Hall, or the buzz saw they call Marchand, Gaudreau, Panarin, Rantanen and the list goes on quite a way's before you get to Willie
would willie even be the best centre in Montreal?, nope but he would possibly be their best winger