William Nylander absent from practice, ‘possible’ for Game 1

Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander was held out of Friday’s practice for an undisclosed reason and his status for Saturday’s Game 1 against the Boston Bruins is unclear.

Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe declined to tell reporters why Nylander was absent, adding that he’s a ‘possibility’ for Game 1, according to The Athletic’s Joshua Kloke.

Keefe followed up and told reporters he will not be providing daily injury updates throughout the playoffs, deferring to general manager Brad Treliving’s instructions.

“He and Bobby McMann both stayed off the ice today, but both are possibilities for tomorrow. That’s it. [Treliving’s] made it pretty clear there’s not going to be any daily injury updates or anything like that,” Keefe said of Nylander via TSN’s Mark Masters.

Nylander is coming off the best season of his career, where he recorded 40 goals and 98 points while playing in all 82 regular season games. He has been Toronto’s second-most important forward behind Auston Matthews and if he misses any time whatsoever, the series advantage tilts back in Boston’s favour.

Prior to Friday’s practice, Nylander wasn’t listed with an injury and he’s been an essential part of Toronto’s spread offense, which places the team’s nominal four star forwards across three lines. Nylander was expected to feature on Toronto’s third line, while playing overflow minutes in high-leverage situations. He is one of the two focal points of the team’s power play along with Matthews.

Calle Jarnkrok replaced Nylander on Toronto’s top power play unit, according to Sports Illustrated’s David Alter. Jarnkrok missed 30 games this season with two hand injuries but is widely expected to return to the lineup Saturday.

Bobby McMann was held out of practice due to injury. McMann suffered a lower-body injury against the Detroit Red Wings on April 14 and missed the final two games of the regular season.

Max Domi revealed that he’s ‘100 percent’ healthy to reporters Friday. Domi had previously been fighting through an ailment, but it didn’t affect his production as he’s morphed into one of the NHL’s best playmakers from the trade deadline onwards.

The Leafs Nation will update this story as it develops.