Report: Saturday practice appears to confirm two injuries for the Maple Leafs.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have yet to play a single second of hockey in the 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season but it sounds like they are already a little banged up.

On Saturday the Toronto Maple Leafs gathered for an early morning practice ahead of their preseason match up with the Buffalo Sabres and although NHL teams tend to be pretty tight lipped regarding injuries at this time of year we appeared to get confirmation of two different injuries to the Leafs roster. The first and most obvious is the injury to forward Frederik Gauthier, affectionately known as "The Goat" in Toronto, an injury that had previously been reported on due to another practice earlier in the week. For the second straight time Gauthier was spotted wearing a red "no contact" jersey in practice, something that bold very poorly for a player that is fighting for a job on the Leafs main roster.

Gauthier is largely considered a contender to become the Leafs fourth line center but a strong showing from recently acquired NHL veteran Josh Jooris in training camp may be pushing Gauthier down the depth chart. Now Gauthier is 5 years younger than Jooris and that almost certainly makes him a more valuable long term asset for the Maple Leafs organization, but when you have one player showcasing his value while the guy he is competing with sits on the sidelines it's easy to see why one would be favored over the other. 

The big news to come out of practice today however was not the confirmation of Gauthier's injury, but rather it appears to be the confirmation of a relatively significant injury to Leafs center Zach Hyman. On Friday night during a preseason game against the Buffalo Sabres the veteran center was forced to leave the ice due to an apparent injury, but given that it is indeed the preseason it could have simply been a precautionary measure, that however now seems less and less likely. 

Although the Leafs themselves have not confirmed an injury to Hyman, he was noticeably absent from practice on Saturday and he never made an appearance either on the ice or off the ice. It's still too early to tell but based on his absence alone this leads me to believe that Hyman may be out for some length of time. Hyman is not the type of player to sit out an entire practice if he's just a little banged up so we will have to wait and see what the official prognosis will be from the Leafs, assuming it comes at al.

Update: There are now some reports that Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock did confirm that Hyman would be out for at least a couple of days following Leafs' practice on Saturday although at this time I have yet to see a source I trust report that information. Hyman has been an important cog in the Leafs offense over the past few seasons and has seemingly become a favorite of head coach Mike Babcock, any significant absence on his part could have a big impact on how the Leafs plan to proceed come the start of the regular season.

[pub]