Toronto Maple Leafs Head Coach Calls Out His Best Player

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James Connelly
December 24, 2023 (6:30 PM)

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Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe has officially called out William Nylander despite his team-leading production.

Keefe Calls Out Nylander

In yesterday's pregame interview, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe shared his current thoughts on team-leading point scorer William Nylander. His words certainly rubbed a few people the wrong way, likely including Nylander.

"Probably the biggest thing is that we are coming off a couple of losses here. Despite the fact that Matthews has been scoring consistently, I don't know if I would say Willy has been a huge contributor to those goals. I believe that Auston could still continue to be Auston and work well no matter who we have him with."

As it stands, Nylander has scored 16 goals and 45 points through 31 games this season. He is trailed by Auston Matthews who has 28 goals and 41 points on the season and is scoring at an insane rate.

Keefe clearly thought that Matthews was carrying the load on his line and decided to shuffle things up a bit by putting Nylander back with John Tavares.

Nylander Proves He Is Still Producing

Despite Keefe's comments, Nylander went out and scored 3 points versus the Blue Jackets last night getting a goal and two assists. Matthews also got three points but he did so by getting two goals and a single assist.

The interesting thing about Nylander's and Matthews' three-point performances is that Matthews' feels more impressive than Nylanders. Not only because he had two goals but also because he had two goals and a primary assist while Nylander had a goal and two secondary assists.

The two will likely go back and forth all season for who will get the team lead in points but as it stands, Nylander has a slight lead.

As seen on Hockey Patrol - Sheldon Keefe Publicly Calls Out Nylander