The Toronto Maple Leafs have lost three of their last four, and broadcaster Sid Seixeiro has decided where the fault lies. His complaint about William Nylander isn’t really about Nylander at all.
“William Nylander doesn’t change his game for anybody. He doesn’t care what Mats Sundin and Daniel Alfredsson say. God help the entire organization,” Seixeiro said on The Sid Seixeiro Show. “I really thought the biggest benefit of having Sundin and Alfredsson on the payroll was that they’d grab number 88 by the collar and say, smarten up. And it isn’t happening.”
He wasn’t finished with the two of them.
“We’re getting to that point with William Nylander. If Sundin can’t get through to him, if Alfredsson can’t get through to him and can’t make this guy try, then what’s the point of all this?” Seixeiro said. “A message to Mats and Daniel: try harder. Try harder. You’re going to miss the playoffs if he carries on like that.”
William Nylander this season:
| Goals | Assists | Points | Cap hit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 11 | 21 | $11.5 million |
What is Mats Sundin’s role with the Maple Leafs?
Both Swedes took up senior positions in Toronto over the summer, which is why Seixeiro is pointing at them. Sundin, who played more than 1,300 NHL games and captained the club for eleven seasons, returned as chief advisor to hockey operations, working alongside general manager John Chayka. Alfredsson came in as associate coach, which makes him head coach Jim Hiller‘s right-hand man with specific responsibility for the power play.
Seixeiro’s broader objection is that nothing Nylander does or doesn’t do carries any consequence, and that his ice time never reflects his effort.
The numbers make that a difficult sell. Nylander has 21 points in the opening weeks, sits second in Toronto’s scoring and is tracking toward more than 100 for the season. The criticism is about work rate rather than output, and about what that costs a team with ambitions.
Alfredsson’s own assessment of him, given when he was presented as assistant coach in July, reads very differently. He had already coached Nylander with Sweden at the 4 Nations Face-Off in 2025.
“There’s no doubt he has some incredible tools that are hard to teach. He takes his game very seriously and his training very seriously as well,” Alfredsson told NHL.com.
Seixeiro has been in this mode for a while. He spent Tuesday morning telling his audience that Dylan Larkin has the IQ of a coffee mug.
Nylander is signed through 2031-32.
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