Toronto Maple Leafs To Be Without Top Winger

The Toronto Maple Leafs have placed forward William Nylander in COVID-19 protocol. With this, the Maple Leafs will be without another one of their top players when they return to action on December 27th.

The Leafs now have a massive 13 players out due to protocol. There are certainly some notable players among the bunch, too. Morgan Rielly, John Tavares, Jack Campbell, Alex Kerfoot, T.J. Brodie, Ilya Mikheyev, Wayne Simmonds, Jason Spezza, Petr Mrazek Travis Dermott and David Kampf are all in it at this juncture.

Yet, Nylander's absence is easily one of the biggest for sure. The star winger is currently having a career season and has been one of Toronto's best players yet again. In 30 games, he has 13 goals to go along with an impressive 31 points. His $6.9 million cap hit is continuing to be one of the biggest steals in the entire league.

The Maple Leafs will be one of the most short-handed teams when play resumes, but even if they lose a bit because of it, they are in a good enough place in the standings that it won't impact them much in the long term.