Maple Leafs demote rookie forward, re-assign him to Marlies

Earlier this week, the Maple Leafs stunned fans when they placed star winger William Nylander on injured reserve after having previously stated that his injury, suffered two weeks ago was merely a day-to-day situation.

Thankfully, Leafs head coach Craig Berube had a positive update for fans on Thursday, revealing to the Toronto media that Nylander was an option for Saturday's home game against the Vancouver Canucks.

According to Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun, Nylander will indeed make his return to the lineup on Saturday. In order to make room for Nylander's return, the Leafs needed to free up a roster spot. Unfortunately for rookie Jacob Quillan, he drew the short straw, as the only waivers exempt player on the roster aside from Easton Cowan, who has been on a roll of late with goals in back-to-back games.

For Nylander, the return after spending six games on the sidelines couldn't come fast enough. For the Leafs, however, there is now a difficult decision to make, beyond sending Quillan down.

The rookie pivot was the Leafs' 13th forward, meaning that they'll still have to pull someone from the active lineup to make room for Nylander.

Recent comments from Craig Berube about the performance of his new-look third line suggests that they won't be broken up, which should be a sigh of relief for Easton Cowan and Nicholas Robertson, who, along with Nicolas Roy, comprise that third line in Toronto.

By process of elimination, the player coming out of the lineup will likely either be veteran Steven Lorentz or fellow veteran Calle Jarnkrok.

The ripple effects could also cause problems for the suddenly solid Matias Maccelli, who will almost certainly be demoted off the 2nd line, moving all the way down to line 4, through no fault of his own. This is merely a numbers game.

We won't know for sure what the full extent of the changes to the lineup will be until Saturday's morning skate, but we do know that Nylander's coming back and that Quillan will be back with the Marlies. Those two things appear to be set in stone.

Also read on Toronto Hockey Daily :
Insider reveals Maple Leafs' plan to pivot after missing out on 6'3 defenseman