Star Leaf returns to practice after missing nearly a month of action

First, as we had previously reported, per The Hockey News' David Alter, Leafs captain John Tavares had been removed from COVID protocol and returned to practice on Sunday.

The second bit of positive news is that injured winger Mitch Marner has also returned to practice on Sunday for the first time after missing the team's last 6 games.

Marner had collided with teammate Jake Muzzin during practice at the beginning of December, being placed on Long-Term Injured Reserve with a shoulder injury.

Typically, a player must remain on LTIR for 10 games and 24 days prior to becoming eligible to return to game action, but because the Leafs have had 5 games postponed in December, those games will count towards the games that Marner would have otherwise missed.

Essentially, if Marner is cleared to return and removed from LTIR this week, he could be in the lineup on December 29th against the Pittsburgh Penguins, assuming that game is not postponed as well.

The Leafs still have as many as 13 players in COVID protocol, but with all players fully vaccinated and most of those players having entered protocol on or before December 21st, we could see many of them return from protocol prior to Wednesday's scheduled game against the Pens at Scotiabank Arena.