Ryan O’Reilly is expected to return to the Toronto Maple Leafs before the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin, Kyle Dubas general manager announced at the NHL General Managers meetings which were held in Manalapan, Florida, on Tuesday.

O’Reilly was hit in the hand by a shot from Auston Matthews in the second period of a 4-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on March 4 and was said to be out for four weeks. 

The NHL regular season ends on April 14.

“We’ve gotten pretty fortunate with that one,” Dubas said, “just with the type of break that it was and the fact that he was able to play and play a lot and play well for us off the hop, and then the fact that he’s probably scheduled to return before the playoffs. So, he’s going to have time to ramp back up again.”

The Maple Leafs’ center resumed skating on Wednesday, working with the team’s skills coach and left the ice before practice.

“Yeah he’s been feeling good anytime I’ve seen him bouncing around the facility,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “He’s been feeling good since the surgery. Today was the scheduled day for him to get back on the ice so everything is progressing that way. I didn’t follow up much but I don’t think he was handling pucks or anything like that today. It was more just about getting the legs moving.”

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Ryan missed three games and was placed on long-term injured reserve, which means he will be out for 24 days and 10 games. Ryan O’Reilly was bought in a three-team trade with the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild on February 17th.

“It’s part of the risk that you take when you acquire somebody late in the year, but it could happen to any of the players on your team at any time,” Dubas said. “I think you just have to accept that it’s part of the risk when you’re evaluating those things.

O’Reilly spots five points (three goals, two assists) in eight games since he joined the Maple Leafs, plus a hat trick in a 6-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres on February 21 and 24 points (15 goals, nine assists) in 48 games this season. He won the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe Trophy voted as MVP of the playoffs with the Blues in 2019.

Sheldon Keefe the Maple Leafs’ coach said on March 7th that he expected Ryan O’Reilly to come back before the playoffs.

“Obviously when we get him, you get excited and you know what he can bring, so to lose him certainly it’s tough and disappointing,” Keefe said. “But we acquired him to be healthy and ready to go for the playoffs and that will be the case. So, to that end, it’s not bad in terms of what the bigger picture is, and especially with the nature of the injury, he won’t miss much time actually on the ice and skating and, and all of that.”

The Toronto Maple Leafs (40-18-9) are second in the Atlantic Division, with a three-point lead over the Tampa Bay Lightning. They also bought, Noel Acciari (Blues) and Sam Lafferty (Chicago Blackhawks), and defensemen Jake McCabe (Blackhawks), Luke Schenn (Vancouver Cannucks), and Erik Gustafsson (Washington Capitals) ahead of the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline on March 3.

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