Auston Matthews may miss time with Maple Leafs.

The Toronto Maple Leafs may have to begin their return from the National Hockey League's Olympic break without arguably their most important player in the lineup.

On Monday morning, NHL insider Darren Dreger reported on the possibility that Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews and other members of Team USA may not be immediately available for a return to the NHL. We have seen behind the scenes video of the Team USA locker room after their Gold Medal win where United States President Donald Trump called the team and invited them to his State of the Union address, and according to Dreger it is this invitation that has conflicted with the NHL schedule.

While Dreger reports that this will be a challenge for all NHL teams with players on Team USA, he specifically states that the Maple Leafs are unclear on when Matthews will return to their team.

While I doubt that fans in the city will begrudge Matthews a chance to celebrate a major victory of this nature, especially after he has struggled to find big game success over his career, it may become a story given Matthews' recent clash with the Toronto media following his Gold Medal win.

That being said it's not impossible to believe that Matthews will return in time for the start of the NHL schedule. The State of the Union address is scheduled for 9:00 pm EST on Tuesday night and the Maple Leafs won't play their first game back from the break until 7:30 pm EST on Wednesday night when they travel to the Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Florida to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Stay tuned for more on this developing story.