William Nylander is sick and missed the Maple Leafs' morning skate Monday, hours before Toronto hosts the Sharks at puck drop tonight.
Chris Johnston reported the illness this morning. There's no word yet on whether the winger dresses, and that uncertainty hits a team already sliding.
The Leafs have lost three straight. Saturday's 4-1 home loss to the Islanders dropped them to 3-4-2, eighth in their division.
Losing Nylander for even one night strips out the second-best producer on the roster. He has 12 points through nine games on an $11,500,000 cap hit.
Only Auston Matthews has more, with 13. And Matthews has been dragging this group lately, piling up eight points over his last five.
Special teams take a hit too. Two of the winger's five goals have come on the power play, the unit Toronto can least afford to reshuffle on short notice.
His recent form is fine, with six points in his last five games. The minus-4 rating is the uglier part, and it says plenty about what's happening at five-on-five.
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Leafs already without John Tavares and running low on answers
John Tavares sits on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, expected out until at least Nov. 27. Pulling another top-six forward on top of that gets thin fast.
It's a kitchen losing a second cook on a Saturday night. Somebody further down the line suddenly has to run the grill.
Jim Hiller's options aren't great. Kirill Marchenko has nine points and Easton Cowan owns two game-winners, but the production falls off a cliff behind them.
Teddy Blueger and Brandon Duhaime have no points in nine games apiece. Benoit-Olivier Groulx is blank in six, and that's the bottom six expected to soak up extra shifts.
Gavin McKenna is the wild card. The 18-year-old has five points but sits at minus-5, and bumping a teenager into a bigger role on a losing streak is asking a lot.
Then there's the crease. Sergei Bobrovsky owns a .891 save percentage, and Toronto has allowed 32 goals in nine games.
The Sharks arrive at 4-3-1, a point ahead of Toronto, despite a minus-7 goal differential. Tonight is the first meeting between the clubs this season.
If Nylander isn't close to full strength, sitting him is the right call. The Leafs are in Columbus on Tuesday to finish a back-to-back, and dragging a sick winger through two nights helps nobody.
The bigger worry? After the Rangers visit Thursday, the Leafs head out on a four-game road trip through Edmonton, Calgary, Seattle and Vancouver.
If this skid is still breathing by then, one missed morning skate will feel like the least of Hiller's problems.
Should the Maple Leafs sit William Nylander tonight even if he says he can play?
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