Don’t Believe Babcock: William Nylander Will Play Centre for Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs held their end of the year press conference earlier this week.

The big news was that coach Mike Babcock said that rookie-of-the-year-in-any-other-year William Nylander would not be playing centre for the Toronto Maple Leafs next season.

OK Babcock. Whatever you say.

If you have a player like Nylander – a proven puck possession player with high-end offensive abilities – why wouldn’t you play him at centre? Centre is a more valuable position than winger.

As good as Nylander is paired with Auston Matthews, the fact is, loading two players of that talent level on a single line is intentionally diminishing your returns. Why don’t Crosby and Malkin play on the same line?…