Nylander outcome will define a lot about Toronto

SAN JOSE — Joe Pavelski was grinning, joking, but not really joking. The Toronto Media was in town, as they call it out here and everywhere, really. Pavelski said, “You guys need a few more Nylander articles out there. It’s been kind of quiet out there.”

The Toronto Maple Leafs went into Thursday night’s game with San Jose tied for fourth in the NHL in percentage of available points gained so far. They were tied for second in goals per game with Tampa Bay, behind only Colorado. They were tied for fourth in goals allowed with Boston, behind only the Predators, the

Jets and the Islanders. Pretty good.

And they are doing it without the 22year-old Nylander, whose holdout is starting to creep into the kind of territory that will warrant all the coverage it will generate. They are getting by without Auston Matthews, too, whose shoulder injury will have cost him nine games by the end of this California trip. It’s been going well, for the most part.

“This is the business side of the game, and I just coach the players I got,” said coach Mike Babcock. “We’ll look better when he’s here … I mean, there’s no sense in worrying about Matty and Willy when they’re not here. There’s nothing you can do about them. Do you wish they were playing? Sure you do. But you think that every time someone gets injured.”

You might note Babcock said, “We’ll look better when he’s here,” referring to Matthews, because that’s the one the Leafs know will be back. Matthews is on the trip, and you can see incremental improvements; he joined the end of practice on Monday in Los Angeles, pushing some pucks around and shooting and doing more one-on-one work with Darryl Belfrey, the team’s player development consultant.

“I just told him there today — he got on the ice there — and I said ‘Buckle up, join the drill,’ ” said Babcock after that practice. “And then I noticed a dog collar got on him and they pulled him right next to the bench and they said ‘No chance.’ ”

They skated him into the ground at the L.A. morning skate; Matthews joined some line rushes as the extra forward here in San Jose; he stayed late on the ice shooting with goaltender Garret Sparks. The original minimum timeline of four weeks would end a week Saturday, on Nov. 24. Every bit of progress is progress.

“For sure, he’s a big part of this team and it’s just great to be able to go up against a guy like that,” said Sparks. “I went against him in L.A. after not seeing him for a month, it was like seeing a new player all over again. I mean, you just don’t see a release like that until he comes back. I think he’s happy with his progress. I would be, if I was him. Just keep working hard and he’ll be back in no time.”

“I mean, obviously (Matthews) is around his teammates and he’s got to get the work in, and the other thing is where you are when you come back,” said Babcock. “Right away all eyes are on you and how you play. So the more time he can spend getting ready, that’s what’s great about a shoulder injury rather than a leg injury or a head injury, that allows you to be prepared when you come back, or at least more prepared.”

Nylander, though: nobody knows. The Leafs can’t afford to fold on his salary demands, not in general manager Kyle Dubas’s first of many showdowns, not with Matthews and Mitch Marner yet to be signed. Nylander has been more determined than anybody thought, and the deadline for playing this season is almost two weeks away. These Leafs have been a top-heavy outfit, and may have to decide if they can live without an asset this good in a year where real contention seems within their grasp. That’s Nylander’s only real leverage here.

It’s going to define a lot about these Leafs. As agent Anton Thun said at Brian Burke’s Prime Time sports conference earlier this week, Toronto might be the first team to have to break up their drafted core without having won a Cup first. It’s not impossible.

“I thought Pavelski said yesterday that there’d be no more Nylander news and then we’d have to stop asking the same question, is that what he said?” said Babcock, glint in his eye. “Well, that’s what he meant, right?”