Nylander, Rogers, Tavares, Dewar, Minten, Danford

The grand William Nylander center experiment has new legs under incoming head coach Craig Berube. He told reporters Wednesday that he’ll open camp with Nylander down the middle with Max Domi on his wing (via David Alter of The Hockey News).

The Maple Leafs have utilized Nylander at center on and off throughout his nine-year career, but never for an extended period. Berube hinted that could change, though, allowing Toronto to potentially have one of the deepest top nines down the middle in the league with Auston Matthews and John Tavares anchoring separate lines.

Nylander has frequently alternated between Matthews’ and Tavares’ right wings since the latter arrived in Toronto in 2018, mostly skating with the latter. He’s coming off a career-best 2023-24 campaign that saw him score 40 goals and 98 points, skating in all 82 games for the second regular season in a row. He’s entering the first year of the eight-year, $92MM extension he signed in January.

More news and notes as Toronto begins its training camp:

• Rogers Communications is now the majority owner of parent corporation Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment after purchasing a 37.5% stake in the company for nearly $3.5B, Scott Soshnick and Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico report. Rogers already owned 37.5% of the company and purchased this stake from fellow Canadian telecom giant Bell, putting a total valuation of MLSE at $9.3B. The corporation owns the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, MLS’ Toronto FC, and the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts in addition to the Maple Leafs. The transaction will close in mid-2025.
• For the second time in his career, Tavares is beginning a contract year without an extension in hand and risks becoming an unrestricted free agent. “I want to be here. I want to be here long term, hopefully that happens,” he told reporters Wednesday (via Alter). Now in the final year of the seven-year, $77MM mega-deal he signed to come to Toronto as a free agent in 2018, Tavares will be looking at a significant reduction from his $11MM AAV to stay in Toronto. The captain turns 34 on Friday and had 29 goals and 65 points in 80 games last season.
• General manager Brad Trelivingalso spoke to reporters today, offering injury updates on a variety of Leafs skaters who will be absent from the first day of camp (via Alter). Chief among them is Connor Dewar, who’s still not fully cleared following offseason shoulder surgery. The 25-year-old won’t be ready for the start of camp but should be…