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Maple Leafs need to plan for William Nylander’s absence
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Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Jon Steitzer
Jan 23, 2026, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 23, 2026, 16:59 EST
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When it comes to replacing William Nylander’s offence for the Toronto Maple Leafs, it’s pretty safe to say a lot is being asked. And as Mitch Marner’s return to Toronto on Friday reminds us, the odds of replacing offence from a single source isn’t likely and a group effort will be required unless Brad Treliving has a trade for Jason Robertson in his back pocket.
Nylander has been the Leafs offensive star this season and the only player producing more than a point per game. He’s third in goals, first in assists and most importantly, he’s the team’s premier puck carrier/mover.
More than Marner’s departure, Nylander’s injury forcing the Leafs to play differently. Don’t get me wrong, they could fall into a Max Domi heater, Easton Cowan could emerge at the best possible moment (and in fact, giving some of Nylander’s responsibilities to Cowan makes sense), and the Leafs will likely continue to benefit from Auston Matthews playing his best hockey of the year, but fundamentally the Leafs need to do somethings different offensively and to the delight of many, I’m talking about embracing gritty hockey.
Points by Leafs in games where Nylander was absent (stats as of January 21):
Player
G
A
P
Matthews
9
6
15
Robertson
6
6
12
Tavares
3
9
12
Knies
4
7
11
Roy
1
6
7
Cowan
3
3
6
McMann
3
3
6
Ekman-Larsson
2
4
6
Domi
1
5
6
Maccelli
2
3
5
Rielly
1
4
5
McCabe
1
2
3
Stecher
0
3
3
Jarnkrok
2
0
2
Joshua
1
1
2
Laughton
1
1
2
Lorentz
0
2
2
Benoit
0
1
1
Tanev
0
1
1
Carlo
0
1
1
Some of the biggest areas for improvement on the Leafs will come from the grittier players like Dakota Joshua and Scott Laughton producing at their best levels and that might mean putting them alongside players like John Tavares and even Auston Matthews in hope that they can convert.
Spreading offence around might require splitting up Knies, Matthews, and Tavares on three different lines with regularity and hoping that the three of them along with some grit and secondary offensive talent like McMann, Maccelli, and Robertson can give the Leafs some balance at 5v5.
The Leafs also have to look at what they’ve lost with Nylander’s heavier shot being out of the lineup and consider if Philippe Myers point shot carries more importance at this time. Chaos and greasy goals will be the best option for the Leafs and Myers might be the most capable asset for that.
The Leafs might also wish to consider a sheltered scoring fourth line over their historically physical fourth line. Putting out offence first players at select times in theory gives Toronto something different that helps.
Maybe there isn’t much of a need to worry about Nylander’s absence at all, which seems strange to say. So far this season the Leafs have gone 7-3-2 with Nylander out of the lineup (it’s probably worth noting Nylander’s absence overlapped the best hockey the Leafs have seen from Auston Matthews this season), and while Nylander is an offensive leader, the Leafs have only had three games without Nylander where they failed to score three goals. The Leafs have 3.5 goals for per game without Nylander compared to 3.37 over the full season, and 3.15 goals against per game compared to 3.33 as their overall season result.
Don’t interpret that as Nylander being a problem and instead take it as the Leafs have improved at the right time to better handle his absence. The numbers do show that players like Nick Robertson and Nicolas Roy have stepped up their game in Nylander’s absence, and both Cowan and McMann have been better in games without Nylander in recent games than earlier in the season as well.
The limited evidence shows that the sky won’t necessarily fall with Nylander is out of the lineup for a while but it will be important for Craig Berube to tap into the middle of the lineup for some additional support.
Data from Hockey Reference

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