Maple Leafs could reap the rewards of William Nylander’s move to centre — if he can do it

William Nylander had only one condition for new Toronto Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube when it came to the prospect of moving to center for the second fall in a row: He needed time.

This couldn’t be another blink experiment. Not like last fall, when then-Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe gave it exactly two preseason games before he abandoned the idea entirely and pivoted to Fraser Minten, then a 19-year-old who had never played in the NHL.

Keefe did it about Minten — “It’s not a reflection of Willy at all,” he said at the time — but he obviously didn’t buy into GM Brad Treliving’s belief that Nylander could play center, and play it well, in the NHL.

How long will Berube give it this time? “That’s a good question,” Berube said. “You have to give him some chance and time.”

It’s a big and kind of unusual jump.

Nylander played just over 600 regular season games in the NHL, plus another 54 in the playoffs. All but a handful or so came on the wing. Nylander hasn’t played center regularly, in other words, since before he became a Leaf, because he was a teenager basically.

It is not unusual for centers to slide to the wing at some point in their career. But forever wingers moving to the middle? You don’t see it often, especially for someone like Nylander, now 28 years old, and well established as one of the game’s best on, well, the wing.

It would be a huge boon for the Leafs in the short and long term if it works out.

First, the current and potential benefit to John Tavares, turning 34 on Friday and entering his 16th NHL season. If Nylander can indeed hang as the No. 2 center, the Leafs can ease not only the number of minutes Tavares plays in the regular season — he’s averaged in and around 18 per game the last three seasons — but also the quality of competition , which he faces in those minutes.

With lines led by Nylander and Auston Matthews pulling the opposition’s toughest defenders forward and on defense night after night, Tavares-led groups will have more opportunity to hunt down lighter fare — third and fourth lines, third defense pairings on the regular. That’s not an experience he’s really had consistently in his NHL career, including in his six seasons as a Leaf.

It could be especially useful to the former Leafs captain in the playoffs.

Last spring, Tavares’ squad was tasked with playing David Pastrnak’s crew in the first round. And while they managed to slow down Pastrnak’s line defensively, they didn’t generate anything on the other end, one of many factors that helped cost the Leafs that seven-game streak.

A less taxing regular season, mind you, could just mean a fresher Tavares next spring.

A 1-2-3 of Matthews, Nylander and Tavares in the middle also brings with it the potential for greater offensive depth. The Leafs have relied, too often, on two lines to generate offense over the years, another point of detriment in past postseasons.

For that depth to materialize, Nylander will have to show he can run his own line without help from either Matthews or Tavares, his collaborators in center over the years. It feels like something he can absolutely do, what with his elite skills as both a passer and a shooter. And it was Nylander who really orchestrated things along the lines of Tavares, especially, in recent years.

Nylander seemed excited by the flexibility that playing center could afford him offensively, the prospect of him flying through the middle with the rock on his tape. “Getting some space with the puck, the option to go right or left versus being on the wing, you only have one option to go,” Nylander said. “It gives you a little more space and options.”

Can Tavares still be a scoring force without Nylander (or Marner) teeing him up for opportunities? Tavares almost always had one of the two star wings by his side as a Leaf, so that’s harder to say. Once upon a time though, albeit as a New York Islander, Tavares thrived with grinders on his wing. He’s at a different stage of his career now, though with less tough competition and a shot that still produced 29 goals last season, there’s reason to think he should still score enough as the 3C – even if he only has wingers like Bobby McMann. and Nick Robertson at his side.

Berube will still have the option to load up if and when his team needs a goal, move Tavares to Nylander’s wing, for example, if the situation calls for it.

The Leafs could even give Marner a look on the right side of a line centered by Nylander and let Matthews cook with non-stars at his side. (Our friend Dom at The Athletics wanted to see the Leafs try this.)

If it works, the Leafs will have secured two of the more crucial positions on the roster for the foreseeable future, replacing the long-formidable 1-2 punch of Matthews and Tavares (UFA, possibly next summer) with Matthews and Nylander.

Nylander, now making $11.5 million on the cap, is more valuable to the Leafs playing center, a more essential, demanding position than wing.

But of course the question remains: Can he do it? And what do the Leafs do if he can’t?

Berube said he would be primarily concerned, unsurprisingly, with how Nylander acquits himself defensively.

“I don’t think he’s going to have a problem getting the puck and getting it up the ice. He is an elite player, he has that ability,” said Berube. “But it’s the details of the defensive part of the game, the bursts, and things like that, positioning, that take a little more time.”

That will really be the question: Can Nylander find the necessary focus and intensity night after night, shift after shift, to get the job done?

Nylander seems determined to do just that. He even sought details from Berube — about his system, and the center’s responsibilities within it — well in advance of camp so he would be better prepared to make the transition.

Another thing he will need to improve on if he continues the job is faceoffs. Nylander won just 47 percent of his draws last season.

Keefe, clearly, didn’t think Nylander could handle the gig. It wasn’t long after Nylander’s line spent most of an early October exhibition game against Montreal in their own zone that he pulled the plug on the whole thing.

It was Nylander’s second game in center in the preseason. He was still adjusting. He didn’t have time to figure it out.

The Leafs should give Nylander not only the entirety of the preseason at center, which may only amount to 3-4 games for Nylander, but also a good 10-15 games in the regular season. If it doesn’t work out at that point, for whatever reason, they can always slide Domi back into the middle as a Band-Aid solution and then proceed with an upgrade before the trade deadline.

The will appears there to make it work this time, really.

(Photo: Steve Russell / Toronto Star via Getty Images)