William Nylander’s shift to center was a failure earlier on, but with injuries piling up it looks like Craig Berube has little choice but to experiment again.

It’s been a rollercoaster week for the Maple Leafs. After going 3-0-0 against Boston, Detroit, and Montreal, they walked into an Ottawa Senators brick wall.

They needed to rebound and did so with some pretty big heroics courtesy of John Tavares and Joseph Woll.

But with the injuries to Auston Matthews, Max Pacioretty, and now seemingly Max Domi; Nylander has been tasked with manning the middle once again after several failed attempts:

So Will The William Nylander Experiment Succeed?

It’s not the end of the world for the Maple Leafs, as Nylander is a much better center than people think, and his shift to the wing is mainly due to the fact that Auston Matthews and John Tavares have manned the first two lines, with Nylander surely not a third-line player.

Head coach Craig Berube has confidence in his star forward though, and knows how good Nylander can be when tasked with being the faceoff guy:

“He’s really good in the face-up dot. He’s like 55% on the year, which is good. He was fine in the middle today. He looked good to me.”

For his career, including the games this season, William Nylander is producing at 50.5% for his faceoffs, a very solid number for a winger who is only called upon to take faceoffs if another is waved out of the circle, or due to injuries.

From 2017 to 2019 he averaged 52.7% and averaged nearly 4 faceoff wins per game taking over 1000 faceoffs in that span.

He’s in the middle of another spectacular season as well, leading the Maple Leafs with 12 goals and sitting second in points behind Mitch Marner, and still winning his faceoffs despite being down nearly a minute of ice time.

All in all, the William Nylander to-center experiment is needed not only to help Toronto get through whatever injury troubles they are currently facing but also to give them a look at their potential second-line center for the future.