“The Nylander”: Team named play after Leafs star player
It sounds like at least one professional hockey team took inspiration from Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander when developing their offensive zone strategy.
The dynamic Swede is having an amazing start to the season, leading the Leafs with 27 points in 20 games. Most players would probably do well to try to play like Nylander, but one team apparently took their appreciation a step further.
Former Vancouver Canucks and Maple Leafs defender Frank Corrado shared an interesting piece of information while he was breaking down a play by Toronto on social media.
“True story: I played on a team, and it wasn’t Toronto, that called this faceoff play ‘the Nylander,'” said Corrado.
True story: played on a team where we would go into an offensive zone face-off saying “let’s run the Nylander” and no, it wasn’t Toronto.@TSNHockey pic.twitter.com/83VuClnRHn
— Frank Corrado (@frankcorrado22) November 30, 2023
The Maple Leafs also seem to employ this play with Nylander, surprise surprise, being a critical part in kicking things off.
According to Corrado, the play starts on a faceoff win by the Leafs and involves Nylander taking the puck and cutting to the middle of the ice along the top of the faceoff circle. Instead of shooting the puck, Nylander pulls all the attention to himself before dropping it back to the half boards for defenceman Morgan Reilly to pick up.
Reilly, now with a lane to skate because of the confusion set by Nylander, moves down into the offensive zone and finds John Tavares all alone. As the Penguins quickly collapse on Tavares, he is able to find Nylander all alone on the backdoor for a goal.
“Nylander coming over the top like that drags two players, gives Reilly enough room to make a play… and now Leafs kind of get body positioning on a couple of guys in front of the net,” explained Corrado. “The Nylander, your new favourite faceoff play.”
Corrado never explicitly says which team used this play, but he did give a couple of hints. At the beginning of the video, he says that he played on the team that did it, and it wasn’t the Leafs.
Considering Nylander wasn’t in the league during his stint with the Vancouver Canucks, that leaves the Penguins as the only NHL team that could have used the play. Corrado, however, never said it was an NHL team.
It could also have been used by a variety of AHL teams that he played on, including the Toronto Marlies, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, or Belleville Senators.
No matter which team it was, it certainly is quite a compliment to Nylander.