TORONTO -- Auston Matthews is the linchpin of the Toronto Maple Leafs' revitalization project, but he's got two fellow high-end rookies who are going to help him fill the net.
Any other season on any other team, William Nylander or Mitch Marner would be the center of attention, two impressive rookies with all the tools to create their own offensive magic.
They stand 1-2-3 in team scoring. Nylander, 20, leads the way with 12 points (4 goals, 8 assists), followed by Matthews, 19, with 11 points (6-5) and Marner, 19, tied with veteran James van Riemsdyk with 10 points (4-6). If they keep it up until the end of the season, the Leafs will join the 1980-81 Edmonton Oilers as the only teams in history with three leading scorers (Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri and Mark Messier) all under 21.
They are the future, the now, a hat trick of offensive talent, Toronto's top picks in the past three NHL drafts.
The intense spotlight on Matthews, taken first overall in the draft in June, has allowed Nylander and Marner to slide by with a bit less fanfare.
However, it's Toronto, hockey's biggest media center, so take that with a grain of salt. Cameras are everywhere.
But Nylander and Marner haven't flinched.
"Nylander's got really nice, high-end offensive skill, great hands," Hall of Famer Michel Goulet, a longtime NHL scout and former scorer himself, said Wednesday. "He's always in the right spot offensively. The games I saw him, he was excellent, just excellent. He's got his head up and knows what's going on around him."
Goulet, a four-time 50-goal scorer and one of the game's true snipers in his day, compared Marner with another highly skilled player who has made his mark.
"Marner reminds me of Johnny Gaudreau at times," Goulet said, referring to the talented Calgary Flames left winger. "Super talented and skilled with the puck. Those are players who are very intelligent and don't get themselves in a bad spot."
Former NHLer Jody Hull, head coach of the Ontario Hockey League's Peterborough Petes, saw Marner pile up 242 points (83-159) in 120 games with the London Knights during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.
"He made things happen every time he had the puck on his stick," Hull said Thursday.
Which reminds Hull of another former London Knights star.
"Patrick Kane, honestly, I do see that comparison, I've seen both of them in junior," said Hull. "Similar traits and all those things with the puck: Marner does some things with the puck where you wonder how he knew his linemate was there. That's what Patrick Kane [does] when he has the puck."
Hull coached Marner on Canada's gold-medal team at the 2014 Ivan Hlinka under-18 tournament, where he got an even better appreciation for the youngster.
"The one word I use for him is that he's a gamer,'' Hull said. "One thing I remember in the Ivan Hlinka tournament, if he was trying to do something and lost the puck, he would just be relentless to get the puck back. He would hound and hound a player to get that puck back. Because he wanted to make it right."
Nylander comes in at 6 foot, 190 pounds; Marner is listed at 6 foot, 170 pounds, but I'm not convinced of the "6 foot" part when seeing Marner with his equipment off.
But Marner certainly has found room on the ice, despite his diminutive frame.
"Why has it not been a problem for Kane or [Artemi] Panarin or all these guys with great skill?" Leafs coach Mike Babcock said this week, when asked why size wasn't an issue for Marner. "When they get the puck, the rink gets bigger; when the rest of us get the puck, the rink gets smaller. So they must have something, whether it be their hockey sense, their vision, their speed.... He has room every time he has it.
"As long as he focuses on working hard and doesn't get comfortable, he's pretty good.''
I asked Marner what has been the most important lesson through more than a month into this NHL career, and he didn't hesitate with his answer.
"You've really got to bear down and listen to your body, take care of your body, that's very important here [in the NHL]," said Marner, the fourth-overall pick in 2015. "It's just taking care of yourself."
How do you do that?
"On days off, it's about just staying in the house, eating the right food, making sure your body is rested," he said. "Don't tire yourself out."
Translation: lots of Call of Duty.
"I just sit there and play video games with my buddies," Marner said, chuckling.
Or, there's time spent with his veteran teammate Matt Martin.
"Me and Marty will hang out and go to a movie once in a while," said Marner, his smile widening as Martin walks across the dressing room. "He's like my dad or my uncle. He just takes care of me."
Nylander's dad, meanwhile, happened to play 16 NHL seasons. Not a bad resource to have Michael Nylander as your old man.
"It's good to have a father that you can talk to about things for sure that way," said William Nylander, drafted eighth overall in 2014. "I don't think a lot of players have that."
The Swedish product had the benefit of 75 AHL games between 2014-15 and 2015-16 (putting up 77 points), plus he played the final 22 games with the Leafs last season before making the full-time jump to the NHL this season.
Finding time and space in the NHL, that's what young offensive stars try to figure out in their first season.
"It's just the way some teams play their systems," Nylander said. "Some teams want to take away space, others play different systems, which gives you a bit more time."
This is a team full of youngsters absorbing every lesson as they come.
"For sure, everybody is learning together," Nylander said. "We win together and lose together. Hopefully, it's going to be like that for a long time."