William Nylander opens up about pressure of playing in Toronto

There is always noise about what kind of player it takes to be a Toronto Maple Leaf, but one of the team's best players and best wingers in the entire NHL, is brushing off that supposed pressure.

While on the NHL's European Player Media Tour -- as they announce partnerships with Italian soccer leagues and have players think about the upcoming Winter Olympics -- Leafs winger William Nylander sat down with SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. All we got is a glimpse of the full interview, but Nylander touched on something that has been fairly relevant in the past few months.

The Maple Leafs winger dove head-first into the difficult topic of if there is too much pressure to play in Toronto.

“Yeah, I mean, I think people forget that we as players also want to win," Nylander said. "So, I mean, I think we have our goal to want to go all the way. I’ve been playing there for a while, but I don’t know, I don’t really think about what other people say or what their opinion is on how we’re playing. We inside the locker room know what we need to do. It’s not an easy battle, you’ve got to appreciate the grind it takes when you eventually get to that point.”

This topic has been always prevalent and in the modern NHL, it's always been something discussed at least once a season. But it is more relevant than it has been in a while with homegrown star winger Mitch Marner opting to leave his childhood hockey team to go sign with the Vegas Golden Knights. The easy answer is that Marner didn't have the right mentality to handle the pressure of playing at the centre of the hockey universe, but things are a little bit different from that and not as simple.

But, that's the past. And the Leafs now have Nylander for the long haul after signing an eight-year contract extension last year -- a player who truly has the right mentality when it comes to facing any external pressure and how to handle any question about it.

The players want to win, they have goals, they shouldn't care about any outside opinion, and they should appreciate the grind. Simple, right?