Is William Nylander Playing Through an Injury?

William Nylander has arguably been the Toronto Maple Leafs’ MVP through the first two months of the season, and they can ill afford to be without him any longer than the four games he’s already missed. Three of those four absences came in late October because of a lower-body injury, and most recently was the one-game absence as a result of an illness.

While Nylander has since returned to the lineup for the next two games in Pittsburgh and Florida, he hasn’t quite looked like himself, which had TSN’s Mike Johnson believing he isn’t 100% healthy, whether that be an injury of sorts or the lingering effects of being sick. With that topic in mind, the broadcast then showed a spill he took in practice the prior day, which appeared to cause some discomfort and took him time to recover from.

He certainly wasn’t at his best on Tuesday night, as the superstar winger was very quiet and seemed to be avoiding contact even more than usual. Other than his sweet assist to Easton Cowan, it was much of the same on Saturday night in Pittsburgh, and honestly, the first 55 minutes of last Wednesday night’s game in Columbus, too, before his skill took over on the game-tying goal and overtime winner.

It’s no cause for too much concern yet, but if he continues to look this way moving forward, then you have to wonder just how serious an issue he’s dealing with.

The 29-year-old has already tallied 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists) in just 22 games this season, on pace to hit the 100-point mark for the first time in his 11-year NHL career thus far.

William Nylander Didn’t Want to Talk About his Illness

While he may just have not wanted to talk to the media about it, Nylander taking a maintenance day and then missing the next game with an illness was a bit suspicious.

When asked what he was dealing with, Nylander said:

“Nothing you need to worry about,”

That, of course, could mean nothing, but given the way he’s looked upon returning from said illness, it’s fair to wonder if something else is nagging.

Very few players in the NHL have been as durable as Nylander in recent years, who had played in 327 out of the 328 possible games over the last four regular seasons, so if anyone is going to gut it out and play through an injury, it’s Willy.

That being said, it becomes a problem should it affect his level of play, so the Maple Leafs and their fans will have to hope it’s nothing to worry about.

Next: William Nylander Opens Up on Relationship with Craig Berube