Toronto Maple Leafs star right winger William Nylander is one of the multiple players taking part in the NHL/NHLPA's European player media tour, which kicked off in Milan earlier this week.
On Friday, he talked about the impact of former teammate Mitch Marner’s departure to the Vegas Golden Knights this summer.
As Nylander told NHL.com, Marner "was the one making sure that we had team events like Halloween parties, dinners, all those kind of events. He would set those things up. Somebody’s going to have to take on that role now because he did an incredible job doing all that stuff."
Marner’s role as the Maple Leafs’ social convenor has its value, but let’s be honest here – Toronto's fans really couldn’t care less about who replaces Marner in that position. The Leafs have one goal, and that’s on the ice. The Buds have a clearly defined target this coming season – getting further in the Stanley Cup playoffs than they have in the past 25 years – and no Leafs fan could give a whit what they do away from the rink.
The more important element in the coming season for the Leafs – and the one that not enough people are talking about – is the imprint Toronto coach Craig Berube is having on the makeup of the Maple Leafs’ roster.
As Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment president and CEO Keith Pelley said this summer after firing team president Brendan Shanahan, Berube will be more involved in making key decisions for the team.
“I'm a firm believer that the coach has to be involved more than just on the day of the game and in the dressing room,” Pelley said of Berube. “I have my utmost confidence in (Leafs GM) Brad (Treliving) and my utmost confidence in Craig.”
That statement should resonate with Leafs fans as they look at the changes Toronto has made this off-season. Treliving didn’t go out and get some happy-go-lucky veteran player to make the Leafs’ dressing room a delightful place to be. Rather, the new additions that he brought to Toronto have Berube’s fingerprints all over them.
Indeed, arguably the two biggest additions to the Leafs are rugged players who have earned their reputation as being gritty and determined to make opponents’ lives miserable: center Nicolas Roy (acquired in the Marner sign-and-trade with Vegas) and left winger Dakota Joshua (picked up in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks).
Neither player shies away from a physical game, and that fits in perfectly with the type of team Berube wants to coach. And nothing else really matters in terms of changes to the team.
In the post-Marner era, the Maple Leafs will want to have a different identity than the finesse game Marner plays. Of course, Toronto will miss the offense Marner generated, but with Pelley’s words about Berube being more involved, it’s easy to see the different route the franchise is plotting out. It’s going to be more about snot and snarl for the Leafs next year, and that’s in no small part because Berube wants a tougher lineup.
It’s natural for NHL teams to try to mirror the blueprint for success of the most recent Stanley Cup winner, and that’s what’s been happening courtesy of Treliving and Berube. The back-to-back Cup champions, the Florida Panthers, imposed their will on opponents, Toronto included, by grinding them into the ground. That’s going to be job No. 1 for Roy, Joshua and the rest of the Maple Leafs.
As Nylander indicated, Marner was a fun teammate to have around. But that amounts to a hill of beans when playoff success has been hard to come by, as it’s been for Toronto during Marner’s time as a team leader and franchise cornerstone.
Halloween parties and team dinners are nice ways to take the pressure off of players for a short spell, but the Maple Leafs don’t need those things nearly as much as they need players who can make opponents regret going into the hard areas of the ice. That’s what Berube wants, and that’s what Leafs fans should want as well.
There’s no question that Marner will be missed in many regards. But if Toronto goes deeper into the post-season than they have in the modern era, no one will be complaining that the Leafs’ dressing room wasn’t as jovial as it used to be. And Berube’s influence on the changes Treliving has made to the roster will be completely validated.
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