William Nylander will not play with Sweden at 2023 World Championship

Well, that didn’t last long.

According to Swedish outlet Dagens, coach Sam Hallam has confirmed that William Nylander will not join the national team for the remainder of the 2023 men’s World Hockey Championship as initially reported.

The Swedish national team never confirmed Nylander was coming in the first place, but local media recently reported on his pending arrival. Before Sweden’s game against France today, Hallam confirmed that they were moving ahead with their current roster of 21 skaters and three goaltenders. The team has one empty roster spot available, but it looks like they’ll elect to pass up on it.

Nylander’s brother, Alex Nylander, has one assist through four games, most recently skating as the 13th forward.

Nylander is coming off of the best season of his NHL career, scoring 40 goals and 87 points in 82 games. He scored four goals and 10 points in the playoffs as the Leafs advanced to the second round for the first time in Nylander’s professional career. Nylander is no stranger to the Swedish national team, scoring five points in three games as a late-tournament addition a year ago. He had one of the best tournament performances in modern history with 18 points in eight games at the 2019 edition and had 14 points en route to gold in his first tournament back in 2017.

Sweden enters the weekend one point behind the United States for first in Group A with a 3-1-0-0 record. The team has outscored opponents 15-2 and look to be heavy favorites in their game against France at 1:20 PM ET today.

For Leafs fans still interested in the tournament, Canada will play Switzerland at 9:20 AM ET, featuring former Leafs prospect and current reserve list forward Fabrice Herzog on the Swiss side. Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin are expected to make up Sweden’s top defensive pairing, with Liljegren recording two assists in his tournament debut earlier this week.