Henrik Lundqvist is familiar with William Nylander.
No, they’ve never faced off against one another before - not at the NHL level, at least.
But back when Michael Nylander was on the same team as Lundqvist? That’s a different story.
Lundqvist said he used to play street hockey with William and Alex Nylander when Michael Nylander was with NYR. He said now he feels old.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) January 13, 2017
Way, way back when Nylander was an actual kid - not in the NHL sense, but in the “literally nine years old” sense - his father was playing on the New York Rangers, which so happened to feature a rookie goaltender by the name of Henrik Lundqvist.
And hey - when you’re still pretty young yourself and your teammates’ kids need a goalie to play with, why not?
Lundqvist may be older now, but with 29 games already played this season, he certainly doesn’t seem to be feeling the effects of aging, as he’s already becoming the winningest European goaltender of all time.
Still - it’s pretty cool these two will meet up again for another hockey game. No word on how many goals Nylander was able to put past him a decade ago, but we’ll see if he’s able to do it on the ice.
After all, as Lundqvist noted, Nylander has always had that talent.