Leafs star William Nylander headed to Four Nations Face-Off

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William Nylander is the first Maple Leaf confirmed for the Four Nations Face-Off tournament in February. 

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Toronto’s right winger, following his second 40-goal regular season, was among Team Sweden’s initial six players announced Friday morning.

The first half dozen on Finland were also revealed, while teammate Auston Matthews is expected to get the nod for the United States when it and Canada make their six names known later in the day before the NHL draft in Las Vegas. 

Nylander also attained a career-best 98 points in 82 games this past season, though he missed three of the seven playoff games against Boston with head injuries. He previously played for Sweden at the world juniors. 

Joining Nylander up front are newly crowned Florida Panthers Stanley Cup champion Gustav Forsling, Filip Forsberg of the Nashville Predators and Mika Zibanejad of the New York Rangers. On defence are two veterans, Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Erik Karlsson of the Pittsburgh Penguins. 

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Nylander was chosen by general manager Anders Lundberg, who has been at the job for the past three IIHF world championships. The coach will be Sam Hallam. Sweden plays Canada at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Feb. 12, Finland there three days later and the U.S. at TD Garden in Boston on Feb. 17. This return to best-on-best hockey replaces the NHL all-star game. 

Finland’s first picks included Aleksander Barkov of the champion Panthers and winner of the 2023-24 Frank Selke Trophy as best defensive forward. Two Dallas Stars defencemen, Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen, are in as is goaltender Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators. Up front with Barkov are Mikko Rantanen of the Colorado Avalanche and Sebastian Aho of Carolina. 

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