The Toronto Maple Leafs received some bad news on Monday ahead of the annual outdoor practice regarding rookie Jacob Quillan.
With the Maple Leafs having some extended time off in between games, that gave several injured players the opportunity to step onto the ice on Monday in anticipation for their next game against the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night.
Head coach Craig Berube mentioned that John Tavares, Matthew Knies, Max Pacioretty, and the goaltenders skated. However, he also added that Jacob Quillan and Connor Dewar were not participating in either the on ice sessions with the injured players back in Toronto, nor the outdoor practice in Mimico.
Quillan's absence shouldn't come as a total surprise considering the knee-on-knee collision he was apart of with Nick Cousins during Saturday night's loss to the Ottawa Senators. While he remained in the game, the rookie forward only skated 5:21 TOI.
His lack of ice-time could have been due to a variety of reasons including the fact that his line-mates in Fraser Minten and Ryan Reaves also saw limited minutes and the Maple Leafs were trailing for the better half of the third period. It could have also been precautionary and with him missing practice today, there's certainly some doubt regarding his status for Wednesday.
As for Dewar, it's been a bumpy road this season for the 25-year-old as he missed the start of the season due to an injury and was recently placed on the injured reserve due to an upper-body ailment.
He has suited up for just 29 games this season with 0 goals and 3 assists to his name across 10:07 ATOI, 78 hits and 18 blocked shots, as well as a minus-2 rating.
Dewar last played on the 20th of January during their 5-3 win over Tampa Bay but was forced out of the contest due to the injury. He's missed the last 2 games and could be on the shelf a little bit longer as his absence from practice doesn't paint the prettiest picture.
On the bright side, it does sound like some of the aforementioned injured forwards are well on their way to making a return, which will help immensely if Quillan and Dewar are set to miss Wednesday's game vs Minnesota and beyond.
With a couple more days left until their next game, it will be interesting to see how they roll out their practice lines in the coming days.
