Toronto Maple Leafs: William Nylander dominates with multi-point effort

In his second game with Sweden, Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander was dominant scoring three points.

After losing their opening game of the IIHF World Championship to Russia on Friday, Sweden came out firing against Germany. They won the game 7-2, with Toronto Maple Leafs‘ young star William Nylander scoring two goals and adding an assist.

After a strong rookie campaign with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the 21-year old is showing no sign of fatigue after playing 19:47, which was second among forwards. The Swedish coaches have been experimenting with forward combinations, so Nylander has played with the likes of Gabriel Landeskog, Victor Rask, Carl Soderberg and Joel Eriksson EK.

That has not stopped him from being a force on the ice, as seen in the video below:

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What makes Nylander an effective forward is his creativity with the puck. If he is given time and space to make a play, he usually makes the opposition pay for it.

His goal is a perfect example of this, where he is coming in with a lot of time to decide what he wants to do with the puck and it usually ends up in the back of the net. While he has a dangerous shot — especially off the rush — Nylander can dish the puck off effectively, because he can get the defenders to draw towards him as they respect his shot.

However, Nylander’s best play of the game was not either of the goals he scored. It was the assist he made, setting up Jonas Brodin for another goal, with a nice backhand pass:

It will be interesting to see how Nylander’s play progresses as the tournament moves along. It would not be surprising to see him lead Sweden in scoring, because he is the team’s biggest offensive threat upfront.

He did see some time at centre against Germany which is interesting, because Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said Nylander would stay on the wing next season. Maybe watching some games with him at centre, could give Babcock something to think about this summer.

Next: Who will Leafs protect in the Expansion Draft?

Nylander leads all Leafs players so far in this tournament, with three points. Meanwhile, Mitch Marner and Miro Aaltonen are still searching for their first point.