Leafs’ William Nylander leaves game against Golden Knights with lower-body injury

The Toronto Maple Leafs announced that forward William Nylander left Thursday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights with a lower-body injury and would not return.

While it wasn’t revealed how Nylander suffered the injury, it appears he rolled his ankle after scoring a goal in the first period.

Nylander finished the game with a goal and assist for two points in 2:17 of ice time. Now through 37 games, the Swedish winger has 17 goals and 31 assists for 48 points.

Through 11 NHL seasons, all with the Leafs, Nylander has 279 goals and 381 assists for 660 points in 722 career regular-season games. He’s hit the 40-goal mark three times, including a career-high 45 goals in 2024-25. He finished with a career-high 98 points in 2023-24.

In the playoffs, Nylander has 26 goals and 32 assists for 58 points in 67 games. Last spring, he led the team with 15 points in 13 games.

The game was the first matchup between Mitch Marner and his former teammates after the winger signed with the Golden Knights in the offseason. Earlier in the day, Leafs captain Auston Matthews had nothing but nice things to say about his former linemate.

“We definitely keep in touch a pretty decent amount,” said Matthews during the Leafs morning skate ahead of Thursday’s game. “He’s always going to be a really close friend, he’s a great person.

“It’s gonna be fun playing against him.”

However, right before puck drop, Matthews spoke with TSN reporter Mark Masters and was asked about him and Marner being the last two players on the ice, with Marner shooting a puck Matthews’ way.

“I didn’t look over,” said Matthews. “I think I’ve had enough of the Mitch questions for the day. Let’s just get ready for the game and go from there.”

Going into Thursday’s game, the Leafs were 23-16-7 with 53 points, sixth in the Atlantic Division and one point back of a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.