Maple Leafs' William Nylander is out against Detroit Red Wings with 'day-to-day' injury

The Maple Leafs had to get through Sunday night’s game in Detroit without leading scorer William Nylander and possibly Tuesday’s final home date of 2025 against New Jersey,

Coach Craig Berube told media in Detroit that although Nylander made the trip after sustaining the lower-body injury Saturday in the 7-5 win over the Ottawa Senators, he’s now classified as day-to-day.

Rookie winger Easton Cowan, whom Berube has wanted to get back in after three games in the stands, took Nylander’s spot on the roster for the second part of the back-to-back. Nylander played just 8:25 on Saturday before leaving in the second period. His game-opening power-play goal gave him 41 points.

Nylander has missed four other games so far this year, including one due to illness. The Leafs have a record of 8-3-1 when he scores.

Cowan has 11 points in 26 games, but when the Leafs played three good games without him, winning two, the coaches decided to keep the lineup intact.

Meanwhile, there is a Toronto traffic jam of defencemen now that Chris Tanev is back and Brandon Carlo will return from foot surgery, perhaps later this week.

With Simon Benoit already a recent scratch, that prompted the Leafs to demote Henry Thrun on Sunday and place Marshall Rifai on waivers. Rifai is coming back from wrist surgery and has been on a conditioning stint with the Marlies. He played in the farm team’s Saturday 4-3 shootout win in Utica.

Rifai would certainly have got a look by now with Carlo and Tanev out after challenging for a job in camp before his injury.

Thrun had no points in four games of relief duty and was a minus one, but generally played well in his zone.
The Leafs wrap up their three post-Christmas Eastern conference games against the Devils and former coach Sheldon Keefe on Tuesday, then face the Winnipeg Jets New Year’s Day at Scotiabank Arena.

Lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby