William Nylander is a popular guy.
Through five days of fan voting for the National Hockey League all-star game, the Maple Leafs winger, fresh off signing a contract extension on Monday, sits atop the list of skaters with 744,990 votes, the NHL announced.
The game at Scotiabank Arena will conclude all-star festivities in Toronto, Feb. 1-3.
Provided the voting remains similar, Nylander would be playing in his first NHL all-star game and would join Auston Matthews, who was chosen by the NHL to be the Leafs’ initial representative.
Before the Leafs played the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, Nylander was fifth in NHL scoring with 54 points in 37 games.
Leafs teammate Mitch Marner is fifth with 457,900 votes, while Morgan Rielly, with 216,416 votes, and captain John Tavares, with 212, 858 votes, are 11th and 12th, respectively, among skaters.
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Thatcher Demko of the Vancouver Canucks leads goalies with 788,278 votes. Sergei Bobrovsky of the Florida Panthers is second with 440,210 votes.
Among skaters, defenceman Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche is second with 664,394 votes, Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers is third with 567,917 and Elias Pettersson of the Canucks is fourth with 518,168.
Voting is open at NHL.com/vote and via X (formerly known as Twitter) through Jan. 11. Every retweet vote cast via X on Jan. 10 will count twice.
Fans will select 12 additional players (eight skaters and four goalies) to the 44-player all-star roster. The first 32, one from each team, were selected by the NHL.
The 12 fan selections will be announced on Saturday. Six will be announced during the first intermission of the afternoon game between the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals. Six will be announced during the pre-game show on Sportsnet and the NHL Network before the Leafs play host to the Avalanche that night.
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