- William Nylander is one of the stars of the Prime Video’s new Faceoff: Inside the NHL series
- The Toronto Maple Leafs star tells PEOPLE about getting to know Justin Bieber, one of the team’s biggest fans
- Nylander shares how he spent his summer: traveling, moving in with his brother Alex and spending time with his two dogs Pablo and Banksy
There are few pressures in sports today like the pressure on Toronto Maple Leafs players to win the Stanley Cup. But winning isn’t always what’s on William Nylander’s mind when he gets home from the stadium after practice.
Usually, it’s something more simple, like taking the dogs out for a walk.
Nylander, 28, is one of the NHL’s premier players and a focus of the league’s new Prime Video series Faceoff: Inside the NHL, a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of its top players on and off the ice.
Throughout the series’ debut episode, montages of the Swedish hockey star’s easy-going approach to the game is on display: Cameras follow Nylander on the train, which he takes to Scotiabank Arena before games, casually walking to work alongside fans wearing NHL jerseys who don’t notice him or his flowing blonde hair. Producers chat with him as he walks his dogs after a dramatic playoff win, and they join him when he sits down to share pizza and a beer with Boston Bruins star David Pastrňák, a longtime friend and former teammate in Europe, before the two NHL stars face each other in the playoffs.
There’s a Swedish word for such an approach: “koppla av” – or, “relax.”
Nylander shares that it’s often his dogs Pablo and Banksy who help him do so: “They have such a good sense of helping me take a step to the side and think about something else,” the Leafs star tells PEOPLE. “They’re great to have around. I mean, you could have a great game or you could have an awful game, but when you come home, there they are and they love you just as much regardless of how it went.”
Nylander, whose cool and collected personality has become one of the most infectious in the league, has found success in recent years behind such methods like not letting the game consume him. The winger-turned-center has finished each of the last three seasons among the top three scorers for the Leafs, playing right-hand man to the team’s star player Auston Matthews. His 98-point season earned Nylander his first career NHL All-Star selection, where he shared the ice with Matthews, 27, and perhaps their biggest fan: Justin Bieber.
“He was way better than I expected,” Nylander says, still shocked at Bieber’s skill on the ice, which the singer showed off during the All Star Game warmups. “We were having a blast.”
Part of the team’s “Core Four” players alongside Matthews, Mitch Marner and veteran John Tavares, Leafs fans have more expectations than ever that Nylander and his teammates are the team that can end Toronto’s 57-year championship drought – an agonizing streak that’s become one of the longest and most tormented in sports, as the Leafs have lost in the first round of the playoffs seven of their last eight seasons.
“I’m only focused on trying to win here,” Nylander says, having explained in Faceoff’s first episode how deeply he’s fallen in love with Toronto. “I came here when I was 18 years old,” he says in the show. “I have become a man in Toronto. It’s made me who I am.”
This season, Nylander will have an even greater sense of home with his brother, Alex Nylander, joining the Leafs’ organization and signing a contract to play for its minor league team, the Toronto Marlies, during this past offseason.
“We have been best friends forever,” Nylander lights up, sharing that Alex even moved into his apartment with him, Pablo and Banksy this summer. “We’re great roommates. And he loves the dogs, too. He’s always hanging out with them.”
William, who joined the Leafs in the 2014 Draft, and Alex, who joined the league in the 2016 NHL Draft, spent most of the summer away from home, though. Nylander says their summer was filled with trips to Saint-Tropez, France, as well as Italy, and his first-ever trip to London, where he took in Wimbledon.
“I really enjoy the summertime,” he says, laughing about the amount of miles he’s flown over the last few months. “It’s nice to get your mind away from the game, give it a break, and just enjoy life.”
Nylander and his brother also took a trip home to Sweden, where they caught Bieber in concert and visited their father Michael Nylander, who played 15 seasons in the NHL himself.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
As kids, the Nylander brothers moved around North America following their dad’s career: Both William and Alex were born in Calgary, while Michael played for the Flames before moving to places like suburban Connecticut when their dad played for the New York Rangers and suburban Chicago when he played for the Blackhawks.
At home, William and Alex would envision their future careers while practicing against each other, and occasionally against a hockey legend or two when their father brought a teammate home for dinner: Hockey Hall of Famer Henrik Lundqvist taught William how to play goalie on the Nylander family’s net at home in Connecticut, and after his dad’s practices with the Rangers let out, William would hit the ice and skate with hockey’s iron man Jaromír Jágr.
“I mean, how many kids can say that?” Nylander smiles.
Paying it forward, one of the most touching moments of Nylander’s Faceoff episode is when the Leafs star stops by a rink at a Toronto city park near his apartment.
“If you guys are having fun, that’s the best,” Nylander tells them before they hit the ice, just like he did with Jágr as a kid. “That’s the most important.”
Read the full article here
