Willy Styles is the nickname given to Toronto forward William Nylander by Joe Thornton when the two quarantined with a handful of other Maple Leafs teammates in a Toronto-area home in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. It suggested that Nylander marches to the beat of his own drum, something the eccentric Thornton would know all about.

There’s probably a few that are borderline crazy,” Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby said in 2010 about his own pregame routines, which at that time included walking a specific circuitous route through his home arena to avoid passing the visitor’s locker room and wearing the exact same lucky jockstrap he’d had since his junior hockey days to every single game.

Craig Berube joked earlier this week William Nylander has little time for his head coach. "He doesn't want me to talk to him," the Toronto Maple Leafs bench boss said with a smirk of his star winger.