The future of the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ offence is still awaiting his first real game with the big club, but already a buzz has started humming on the heights that could be reached by a younger member of his family.
While 19-year-old Marlies phenom William Nylander has set up shop at Ricoh Coliseum, outscoring all other American Hockey League players, baby brother Alexander is a short drive west, tearing up the Ontario Hockey League in Mississauga. Even better? Their NHL alumnus dad, Michael, is in town to watch their games and prepare home-cooked meals.
“It’s very nice to have them here. It gives you sort of a family feel here in Toronto,” William Nylander told Hockey Central at Noon Friday (watch above). “It feels sort of like home.”
Alexander, 17, has jumped seamlessly into the OHL this season. The rookie winger has put up 36 points in 25 games for the Steelheads, and William offered up a rather favourable scouting report on his sibling.
“He’s a little better version of me,” said William, the eighth-overall pick in the 2014 NHL Draft.
Nylander has tallied a league-high 23 points in 17 games with the Marlies this season and is better than a point-per-game throughout his AHL stint (54 in 53). The kid who goes by “Snizzbone” leads all Marlies in goals (10, nine of them at even strength), assists (13) and shots (53) while taking just two minor penalties.
No wonder fans’ pleas for his promotion to the Maple Leafs are getting louder.
“My focus is to play as well as I can down here, and hopefully when the time comes I get called up,” Nylander said.
“I’m watching the Leafs every game, and they’re playing great, so it’s fun to see.”
Leafs general manager Lou Lamoriello, however, is preaching patience.
“Temptations are everything in life,” Lamoriello told Sportsnet 590 The Fan earlier this month.
“You have to be careful: Is this the right thing for the big picture?”
Nylander will skate in a game at Air Canada Centre Saturday, when the Marlies storm the Leafs’ home rink to host the St. John’s IceCaps in a matinee affair.
