It was one month ago when Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander thought he’d begin a YouTube channel.
The 29-year-old released a brief snippet on Thursday night of what’s to come. The YouTube short was titled: “Welcome to my YouTube!” It featured several quick clips of Nylander’s life behind the scenes, from him driving around in Toronto to being at the AC Milan game in late August.
“I just thought it would be a fun thing to do and give fans insight into my life away from the rink and hopefully [there’s] some fun stuff in there,” Nylander said on Friday afternoon.
The Maple Leafs’ highest goalscoring forward last season said he watched plenty of YouTube growing up. His feed featured a surplus of hockey highlights, with a bit of Call of Duty sprinkled in, he added.
Another reason Nylander began the channel was that he’s already comfortable in front of the camera. Not only does Nylander have years of media experience, but the Swede also had an Amazon Prime documentary team following him during their first-round series against the Boston Bruins in 2023.
The latter helped Nylander conclude that a YouTube channel might be a good idea.
“I think that's what made it kind of easy, and it wasn't going to really change too much. I've done it before, so that's why I thought it wouldn't be doing too much,” he said. “When I first did the first stuff, I was a little bit worried about me getting distracted and stuff. Now that I've done that a couple of times, I think it's just going to be the same kind of situation, just doing other stuff.”
All of his friends and family will be involved in the project, Nylander admitted. But what about his Maple Leafs teammates?
“(The camera) hasn’t been around the boys yet, but we’ll see,” he laughed.
Anthony Stolarz is not a social media guy, but he says he heard rumblings that Nylander had started a YouTube channel. “Some guys were talking about it a little bit,” Stolarz smiled. “I guess I'll have to hop on YouTube and take a peek at that and see what Willy’s been up to.”
What can the general Maple Leafs fan learn about Nylander?
“Honestly, just how laid back and chill he is,” Stolarz added. “He’s a great human being and someone that we respect in this room. He’s someone that we lean on a lot this year, and I’m looking forward to seeing him take that next step.”
Morgan Rielly has been Nylander’s teammate since the forward was drafted by the club in 2014. That’s 11 years of friendship. With that being said, what does Rielly think fans will be able to learn about Nylander behind the scenes?
“I don’t really know,” he grinned. “I don’t think a whole lot, but we’ll see.”
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