Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe acknowledged that the forward stayed out late working with the scratches but didn't rule out his talented forward's return.

With each passing day, William Nylander looks like he's getting close to returning from an undisclosed injury.

The talented Toronto Maple Leafs forward was with his teammates for a full morning skate on Wednesday ahead of their Game 3 matchup against the Boston Bruins.

Although Nylander was a more active participant, even skating in some drills on a potential line with Pontus Holmberg and Calle Janrkrok, he stayed on the ice late doing some extra work with the scratches, a fairly strong indicator that he will not be in the lineup on Wednesday. 

"There’s a chance. Obviously, he’s still out there getting work," Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said of Nylander. "Everything for him is out he responds and we'll take it from there."

Nylander played in all 82 regular season games for the Maple Leafs this season before he was unable to hit the ice for the team's first practice of the playoffs on Friday. Following the session, Keefe indicated there would be no lineup updates on Nylander or anyone else for that matter during the playoffs.

The coach has since softened his stance in providing updates, although at times it appears to be to throw the Bruins off in a friendly joust of gamesmanship.

The Leafs split the first two games of their best-of-seven series without Nylander in the lineup. A healthy Nylander makes the Leafs a deeper and tougher team for Boston to deal with.

"He’s done a lot for us offensively this year," Mitch Marner said of Nylander. Really he’d just make our team excel even better. It would mean a lot."

Jarnkrok agreed,

"He’s a big part of our group. He’s an incredible player. We’d love to have him in the lineup for sure."

 Nylander scored 40 goals and had 58 assists in 82 games this season. He signed an eight-year, $92 million contract extension which kicks in on July 1.

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