Reports of a nasty illness going around the Leafs' locker room

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube confirmed that star forward William Nylander missed practice today due to an illness, suspected to be the flu. 

From TSN insider Mark Masters:

As Masters points out, the illness is going around the team's locker room and more than a few players are feeling under the weather.

“We’ve had more guys [sick] too, but they were able to keep going,” Berube added. “We’ve got to watch for it. But it was great to see [Tavares] out there today and he got through practice. It looked like he was low-energy, but he’s a good pro, got out, had a sweat and I’m sure he’ll feel better later.”

Nylander's status has not yet been confirmed for the Leafs' next game tomorrow against the Los Angeles Kings.

Read below for our earlier report on Leafs defenseman Timothy Liljegren.

Earlier this month, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported that the Toronto Maple Leafs are looking for a "landing spot" via trade for defenseman Timothy Liljegren after a weak training camp and failing to crack the opening night roster.

"Sounds like Toronto is working to find a landing spot for Timothy Liljegren," Friedman wrote for Sportsnet last week. "He’s down the depth chart, not a situation anyone is happy with."

Liljegren has slid so far down the team's depth chart that he's now the 7th or even best 8th defenseman. Morgan Rielly, Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Jake McCabe, Simon Benoit, Conor Timmins and Jani Hakanpaa all hold down spots above him in the Leafs' defensive rankings.

"Lilly's got to do things quicker. He's got to be a little bit heavier in his battles and move into pucks quicker and simplify the game," head coach Craig Berube said last week. "He's obviously battling. He wants to be a guy in the lineup every night, and that's great. But sometimes you kind of put too much on your plate, right?

"Simplify the game a little bit more. If I had to say anything, simplify his game a little bit more. And just do your job as a defenseman, killing plays and being heavy."

Now, Liljegren himself is speaking on the rumors and he's making it clear that he's not a fan of the way things are playing out.

"Yeah, not fun not playing, but I've been trying to come in, work as hard as I can to get back in the lineup.

If something happens, it happens."

- Timothy Liljegren

Any takers?