If Leafs coach Mike Babcock has said it once, he has said it a half-dozen times: When it comes to assessing William Nylander’s adjustment to the NHL, current conditions are not ideal.

Eight games into his NHL career, Nylander has been playing a steady dose of centre. It would be far better, the coach says, if Nylander could get his first taste of the world’s best league playing the less demanding wing position. Babcock underlined his point most recently the other day in Detroit, speaking about how 19-year-old Dylan Larkin — the 15th overall pick in the 2014 draft, wherein Nylander went seventh overall — has emerged as a rookie force. Larkin, it turns out, is a would-be centre currently manning the wing alongside Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg.

“I can’t emphasize how important that is, when you’ve got a guy to help you take the weight off you,” Babcock said. “(Larkin’s) a centre who’s playing the wing, which is a great way to start in the league, because you’re looked after.”

Thanks to various injuries and other roster limitations, an opportunity at wing isn’t likely for Nylander, at least not this season. As for next season well, you don’t need to be a mind-reader to infer that Babcock will use his considerable influence to ensure the Maple Leafs have a mentor-centre in place for Nylander come the fall.

A leading possibility for that job will be making his second and final trip to the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday night. Come July 1, it’s expected the Leafs will make a push to acquire Tampa Bay Lightning centreman Steven Stamkos, the pending unrestricted free agent who grew up a Maple Leafs fan and spends his off-seasons in the GTA.

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And why wouldn’t they? Toronto’s deft clearing of salary-cap space means they’ll have the freedom to pay Stamkos the projected eight-figures-a-season market rate. That would easily fit within a current roster-building model that will allow for a handful of high earners at the top of Toronto’s cap-hit list, this while a larger quantity of value-priced talent, fed by the franchise’s impressive cache of draft picks, competes for ice time at the bottom.

Acquiring late-career, past-due veterans was once a Maple Leafs specialty that rarely proved fruitful. But Stamkos is a new kind of free agent. He turned a mere 26 last month. And even while playing under the attendant stress of a contract year — even while labouring for a coach, Jon Cooper, who has often deployed Stamkos like a second- or third-liner — Stamkos is on pace for 37 goals. As Babcock raved earlier this season, Tampa’s captain has been skating at an eye-popping level we haven’t seen since he broke his leg in November of 2013.

There’s plenty of time between now and July 1, of course, and once it arrives Stamkos will surely have other options, as will the Maple Leafs. But the more time passes, the more Babcock talks, the more the idea of the Maple Leafs accelerating their rebuild by adding an established star seems to fit the ever-evolving organizational philosophy – or, as GM Lou Lamoriello calls it, the “five-year plan that changes every day.”

“As we build our team in Toronto with all these kids, you need good veterans to go with ’em, too. It’s great if they’re a real good player. But it’s more important if they’re a real good person. If they can be a real good player . . . that’s even better,” Babcock said Sunday in Detroit.

While much of the franchise’s recent thrust has been geared to acquiring draft picks, current members of the Maple Leafs certainly seem enthused by the idea of supplementing the flow of young talent with free-agent help.

“This isn’t my place to say it, but I think the organization is in a great place to really take off next year,” said Brooks Laich, the long-time Washington Capitals forward who arrived in the February deal for Daniel Winnik. “The players who are here, myself included, are all on an audition for next year, for who’s going to be a part of it. For outsiders — if you’re a UFA or something — you look at a tremendous coaching staff, a fabulous place to play hockey where you are treated like royalty by the organization, by the people in town from my experience, and you’re part of a young, energetic movement that’s going to push teams.

“To me, that’s a very attractive place to play.”

Certainly Laich could be a model pitchman to those considering Toronto as a destination. He left a Stanley Cup contender — albeit not by choice — and is still framing Leafland as an ideal landing spot.

“This is an amazing opportunity. Coming from D.C., I’m not dragging my lip,” Laich said in an interview Friday. “I don’t think we’re as far away as everybody thinks. There are going to be growing pains, don’t get me wrong. There’s going to be pain. But I’ve seen us play very, very well. I’ve seen us control the territory game, the shots-on-net game, the possession game, the faceoffs. I’ve seen that growth in our game. Now if you can add in a dominant special teams, which takes you up another level, and you add more and more experience — some of these (rookies) have played a half-dozen games, and they’re competitive with NHL playoff teams.”

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Toronto’s positive possession metrics, which have improved since the Feb. 29 callups of Nylander and standout rookies Zach Hyman and Nikita Soshnikov, suggest they’re not far from doing more credible damage. A chance at league-best odds on the No. 1 overall pick in next month’s draft lottery doesn’t hurt the forecast, either. As recruiting narratives go, the Leafs will have a compelling one to share come the summer.

“I think as a group we’re very optimistic about having bright future, and having that future come sooner than later,” said Morgan Rielly, the third-year defenceman. “We’ve got the best fans. We have a group here that wants to win. We have the pieces in place that are pointing in that right direction. So for me, if I was taking an outside look at it, I would think it would be an exciting opportunity.”

That’s not a pitch to Stamkos, it’s a statement of common sense. This won’t be a bad team much longer. On some nights it’s an awfully promising team already. The chance to reside in the centre of it all won’t come around every day.

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