TORONTO — William Nylander will be back in the Maple Leafs’ lineup for the first time in two weeks.

Nylander hasn’t played since Dec. 27 against the Ottawa Senators, when he appeared to suffer a knee injury in the second period of a 7-5 win.

The Leafs have gone 4-0-2 without him and 6-0-2 in their last eight games. They can keep climbing their way into the Eastern Conference playoff race with a win Saturday over the Vancouver Canucks at home.

Nylander hasn’t been on the bench for some time

this seems to be the issue pic.twitter.com/CTRLa0y70P

— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 28, 2025

Head coach Craig Berube had no choice but to shuffle his lineup for Nylander’s return.

The right winger will slot onto the second line with John Tavares and Matias Maccelli, while a rising Matthew Knies will hook back up with Auston Matthews and Max Domi on the top line.

Bobby McMann falls to the fourth line with Scott Laughton and Steven Lorentz. It’s a tough break for McMann, who had a strong stint alongside Matthews and Domi.

“It’s tough — tough decisions,” Berube said.

The Leafs coach notably kept the pesky trio of Nick Robertson, Nicolas Roy and Easton Cowan intact to face Vancouver.

Here’s what that will look like:

Knies, Matthews, Domi

Maccelli, Tavares, Nylander

Robertson, Roy, Cowan

Lorentz, Laughton, McMann

Nylander will also rejoin the Leafs’ No. 1 power-play unit alongside Matthews, Maccelli, Knies and Morgan Rielly. That will push Tavares to the second unit with Domi, Robertson, Cowan and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

“I spoke with JT about it. He’s a good team guy and he’s fine,” Berube said of Tavares. “He can be really effective with the other unit, too.”

Calle Järnkrok will be the odd man out up front in Nylander’s return.

What has maybe been most impressive about the Leafs’ play in Nylander’s absence is the way they’ve continued to score. The Leafs have pumped in 21 goals in the six games that Nylander missed, led by team captain Matthews, who has scored six.

Nylander still leads the team in scoring with 41 points despite missing 10 games so far this season.

Defenceman Jake McCabe also appears set to return from an injury that kept him out of the past two games. He’s been dubbed a game-time decision. He’ll join a pairing with Ekman-Larsson if he plays. Troy Stecher will drop down to play with Simon Benoit on the third pair in that case, with Philippe Myers coming out of the lineup.

Injuries have ravaged this group throughout the season. Anthony Stolarz hasn’t played since Nov. 11 because of an undisclosed injury and will miss his 27th straight game on Saturday. Chris Tanev, Dakota Joshua and Dakota Mermis also remain out with injuries.