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Nylander hopes he can carry the entire experience into this season. “I think you learn and you get the feeling of what it’s like to win, so that’s lots of fun. I want to do it again.”

Nylander had a Calder Trophy-calibre season in the NHL last year, ranking third in rookie scoring with 61 points. The challenge now is using that as a springboard for Year 2.

And it’s not just Nylander.

Photo by Andre Ringuette / AP

Whether it was Auston Matthews winning rookie of the year or Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine and Columbus’ Zach Werenski playing above their years, many will be watching to see whether last year’s rookies can take another step towards stardom as sophomores. The Leafs will be an especially interesting case study.

From Matthews (40 goals) and Connor Brown (20 goals) to Mitch Marner (61 points) and defenceman Nikita Zaitsev (36 points), Toronto will be counting on many second-year players to either match or build upon what they did as rookies. If not, a team that surprised many by skipping a step in their rebuilding process could fall backwards.

“It was a good year and we have to come back and be hungry again this year,” said Nylander, speaking for the first time since returning to Toronto this week. “We can improve even more. I think we have expectations too of our own, so I think we want to go just as far as the fans do.”

“We have to be better than last year,” said Marner, who was also outstanding for Canada at the world championship tournament, scoring four goals and 12 points in 10 games for Canada. “That’s the main factor here. We want to do better than we did last year. I think we all came ready to play this year and we all have confidence to go farther.”