Page 79 - Sharp Winter 2025

WHERE IS WILLIAM NYLANDER? IT WAS AN ANSWER
Maple Leafs fans were clamouring for as the team entered the first round of the playoffs last spring. They were set to face the Boston Bruins, a historically bitter post-season rival they hadn’t beaten since 1969. Both teams featured star-studded rosters, yet it was Nylander’s calm, steady on-ice presence that many assumed would be the necessary element to extinguish past playoff demons. Still, through the first three games, Nylander was nowhere to be found. The media frenzy was met with stoic silence from his coaches and teammates, while the star forward sat helplessly in his Yorkville apartment.
After not missing a game since 2016, leading up to the team’s series against Boston, Nylander began suffering from blinding migraines. “We had to be extra cautious, in case it [was] a concussion,” Nylander explains in Faceoff: Inside the NHL, a new Prime Video docuseries that centres around the Swedish star in its premiere episode. “It was tough, but knowing how I was feeling, I wouldn’t have been any help, either.”
Nylander returned for the final four games of the seven-game series, where the Leafs fell for the seventh consecutive time to the Bruins in a heartbreaking overtime loss. Nearly six months removed from the loss, Nylander still winces at the memory.
“I grew up with my dad playing professionally, so we moved around a lot growing up. Toronto is the first place where I really felt home,” he says. “These fans, they’re crazy. They’re the most passionate fans in the world. I know how much those losses hurt, especially to Boston. But I hope they know it kills me, too. Fuck, man. It really does.”
We’re seated for lunch at Yorkville’s ONE Restaurant, just a short walk from his home. It’s the start of what will be Nylander’s 10th season with the Leafs. Since being selected eighth overall by
Toronto in the 2014 NHL Draft, Nylander shuffled around the city before planting roots in Yorkville. “I lived at The Four Seasons, The St. Regis for a bit, The Ritz-Carlton. I lived at Bloor St. W. and Jane St., for a while. I actually really liked the west side. That was fun. I moved around the city because that just felt normal. My whole childhood was that. You know? My dad could get traded at any time. So, when I realized I could have a long future here, I needed to find a spot to settle.”
Over the past few years, the 28-year-old has become a bonafide star. Last season, his point totals reached all-time highs, earning him his first All-Star selection and an eight-year, $92-million contract extension. It was the largest contract in Toronto’s franchise history but, more importantly for Nylander, it included a no-movement clause, meaning the Leafs couldn’t trade him without his approval.
“I get it. The money gets the headlines. But for me, the contract was so much more of a message from the team and the city saying, ‘We want you here. We want to win a championship with you,’” he says. “I hope signing it was a clear message back that I want to be here. This is it. This is home.”
Part of making Toronto home is his concerted effort to keep his feet on the ground, in a literal sense. As shown in the docuseries, board the TTC on any given game day and there’s a chance Nylander will be riding alongside you. Pop into Sugo on a Friday night and you’ll see Nylander in his usual spot, posted up by the window, watching a pay-per-view fight. Visit Queen’s Park on an idle Saturday afternoon and you might pass him and his dogs, Pablo and Banksy, out for their daily walk. “I’d be walking with them right now if it wasn’t for this,” he laughs.
The dogs, as Nylander explains, help put things in perspective. In a city where hockey holds more emotional baggage than anywhere else in the world, competing at the highest level takes its toll. “They’re
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