William Nylander wins MVP after leading Sweden to gold at World Championship

One final gold star for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ season.

William Nylander was named Most Valuable Player of the IIHF World Championship in Paris and Cologne, scoring seven goals and 14 points in 10 games as his native Sweden won gold with a 2-1 shootout victory over defending champion Canada in Sunday’s final.

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Russia’s Artemi Panarin and Nikita Kucherov, and Canada’s Nathan MacKinnon finished with more points than Nylander, but the 21-year-old Swede was recognized for leading Tre Kronor to its first championship in four years and 10th all time.

And he celebrated that accordingly:

Nylander scored a goal and an assist in Sweden’s semifinal victory over rival Finland, but his best moment of the tournament came in the quarterfinal versus Switzerland. Nylander broke a second-period deadlock when he burned a Swiss defender and slipped the puck through the legs of Leonardo Genoni while being hauled down on a breakaway.

Nylander, Panarin and MacKinnon were named to the all-tournament team, along with Canadian defenseman Colton Parayko, German defenseman Dennis Seidenberg and Russian netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Finland’s Patrik Laine was named Most Valuable Player at last year’s tournament and before that Jaromir Jagr, who happens to be older than the last two winners combined.

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