William Nylander Appears to Favour the Leafs Acquiring Underrated Forward in West

The 29-year-old has 6 goals and 20 points through 11 games for the Leafs this season, as he does his best to supplement some of the offense lost in the departure of Mitch Marner.

That being said, GM Brad Treliving made it very clear during training camp that he is going to exhaust all of his options in order to find another top-six forward.

David Kampf was the odd man out to begin the season, and was sent down to the Toronto Marlies. After taking a leave of absence over the weekend, the Leafs suspended him without pay on Thursday.

The suspension means the Leafs are no longer on the hook for the $1.25M of his $2.4M salary and now have $1.3M in cap space.

With a resolution to Kampf's situation imminent, the Leafs can continue their search for a top-six forward -- one of which could be a former teammate of William Nylander's.

Ahead of Wednesday's game against the Utah Mammoth, Nylander spoke with The Athletic about pending UFA Nick Schmaltz.

The two played together, along with Christian Dvorak for the Chicago Mission Bantam AAA team during the 2010-2011 season and remain close to this day.

In the final year of his current deal, Schmaltz has been a 20-goal, 60-point player the past four seasons and already has 18 points this season. No, he isn't the 100-point player the Leafs lost in July, but his playmaking and scoring abilities would surely help balance the Leafs' top-six.