Nylander missed the Maple Leafs’ first three games of their opening-round series against the Boston Bruins.
Nylander missed the Maple Leafs’ first three games of their opening-round series against the Boston Bruins.
In the beginning stages of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ opening-round playoff series, there were rumblings that William Nylander could potentially miss Game 1 after his absence from the team’s first practice of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Those reports were converted into reality as Nylander proceeded to miss the first three games of the postseason, without any clear indicator pointing to an answer to his undisclosed injury – a strange saga to say the least.
Miraculously, Nylander returned for the remaining four games of the series, scoring three significant goals throughout Game 6 and 7. As the series progressed onward, Leafs Nation and hockey fans alike were left wondering the reasoning behind his disappearance – considering he last missed a game due to injury on November 27, 2016.
Now that the dust has settled amidst another heartbreaking first-round exit which saw the Leafs fall 2-1 in overtime of Game 7 to the Bruins, the answer has been revealed by Nylander himself; complicated migraine issues.
“Yeah, I don't know exactly what it was,” Nylander explained. “They just kept me precautionary to see what was going on. I had had a migraine, but in case it could have been a concussion. So once I started feeling better, they let me play.”
As a reminder, Nylander suffered from migraines back in the 2021-22 season, ultimately translating to him wearing a tinted visor for the start of the following season – which has stuck with him since. In this case, Nylander explained it was difficult to identify a singular problem but the underlying issue was centered around the idea of a potential undiagnosed concussion given his loss of vision that did not allow him to see clearly.
When attempting to explain it in his terms, Nylander mentioned, “This situation is very complicated. It's hard to explain exactly what it is. My vision goes, I can't really see out of my eyes, it gets messed up, so yeah, it's hard to play.”
Given the success the Swede had entering the year as a pending unrestricted free agent, scoring 40 goals and tallying 58 assists for a near 100-point season, the Maple Leafs gained a massive boost when he was reinserted into the lineup for Game 4.
After once again proving why he was worthy of a pay raise this postseason despite battling these unconventional and frankly, unfortunate circumstances, Nylander proved yet again that he is a star player that deserved to be paid top dollar.
Nylander is locked into an eight-year contract that pays him $11.5 million annually with the Maple Leafs worth up to $92 million.
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