William Nylander might want to update his bio on X.
For years, the Maple Leafs forward has had “Give me the puck” followed by a wink-and-smile emoji on his profile.
In his first season under coach Craig Berube, Nylander wants more ice time.
Through Toronto’s first 10 games of 2024-25 and before the club played host to the Seattle Kraken, Nylander averaged 18 minutes and one second per game. That’s close to a two-minute drop from the 19 minutes 55 seconds he averaged in Sheldon Keefe’s last season as Leafs coach.
Nylander is not killing penalties under Berube after he averaged one minute per game on the kill in 2023-24.
His even-strength time has decreased a full 90 seconds, to 14 minutes two seconds from 15 minutes 32 seconds. Nylander has had a 34-second bump up on the power play, however.
“That is a little bit about what I’ve been trying to talk to (Berube) about, to get that ice time back to where it was before,” Nylander said on Thursday morning. “I think it helps my game a lot to do what I want to be able to do out there. It’s something to figure out.”
Nylander also said he “missed” playing on the penalty kill.
Berube isn’t ruffled with Nylander’s desire to play more.
“I have no problem with it,” Berube said. “And I do try to get him more. We talk about it. I try to get him out there, if deserved, as much as I can.
“I don’t focus on ice time so much. I get Willie out there quite a bit (in) a lot of key situations. But at the same time, I’ve said this all along, we want to be a good team, everybody needs to be involved.”
By comparison, Auston Matthews’ ice time this season is relatively the same, averaging 20 minutes 52 seconds after he was at 20 minutes 58 seconds last year. Mitch Marner has seen a bit of a jump to 21 minutes 42 seconds, from 21 minutes 17 seconds.
Through 10 games, Nylander led the Leafs with six goals and was second in team scoring with 10 points, one behind Marner’s 11.
X: @koshtorontosun