{"id":419340,"date":"2026-01-21T06:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T06:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/419340\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T06:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T06:58:19","slug":"jacob-quillan-appears-to-be-getting-his-first-real-opportunity-with-the-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/419340\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Quillan appears to be getting his first real opportunity with the Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\t\t\t\t\t \"Sep <\/p>\n

Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

It might be Jacob Quillan’s time as the Maple Leafs are seemingly trusting him with a big opportunity as the team looks to handle their injury situation.<\/p>\n

As Toronto tries to bounce back against Detroit on Wednesday from a tough 6-3 drubbing at the hands of the Minnesota Wild on Monday, they may have to do so without Matthew Knies as he’s still dealing with a lingering injury issue.<\/a><\/p>\n

Add that William Nylander is going to miss the game, and still has an undetermined return date and quickly the Maple Leafs potent offense has taken a serious hit over the last week.<\/p>\n

Jacob Quillan earns important chance amidst Maple Leafs injuries<\/p>\n

Though things look bleak right now, there could be a silver lining in all of this and it solely depends on how Jacob Quillan responds to his new responsibilities.<\/p>\n

While it’s not guaranteed given Knies isn’t officially confirmed out, but Quillan took the right wing on the second line along with John Tavares and Matias Maccelli at practice on Tuesday in a show of trust for one of the Marlies top scorers:<\/p>\n

McMann – Matthews – Domi
Maccelli – Tavares – Quillan
Cowan – Roy – Robertson
Lorentz – Laughton – Jarnkrok<\/p>\n

Rielly – Carlo
McCabe – Ekman-Larsson
Benoit – Myers<\/p>\n

Craig Berube seems to both trust Quillan enough to lead the offense in the top-six, but also doesn’t want to mess with a good thing and split up the Robertson\/Roy\/Cowan line or that scrappy and gritty fourth line.<\/p>\n

Why Quillan deserves a chance while Matthew Knies heals up<\/p>\n

While he’s known more for his keen defensive skills, he does have 27 points in 28 games (8 goals, 19 assists) while also being a keen penalty killer and defender with a plus-8 rating.<\/p>\n

Berube has stated though that he does expect Knies to play, so Quillan’s responsibilities may be put on hold, but given that the Maple Leafs should rest their stars instead of pushing them through things — he deserves a shot.<\/p>\n

So while we await Matthew Knies’ status for Wednesday’s game against Detroit, at least the Maple Leafs have a player who can hold down the fort and probably deserves more of a look than he’s gotten.<\/p>\n

Previously on Hockey Patrol<\/p>\n

POLL<\/p>\n

7 HOURS AGO\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0\u00a076 ANSWERS<\/p>\n

Jacob Quillan appears to be getting his first real opportunity with the Maple Leafs<\/p>\n

Should the Maple Leafs let Matthew Knies rest and play Jacob Quillan?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images It might be Jacob Quillan’s time as the Maple Leafs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[93,5,3082,20,39334,5172,4,25896,66,31,49068,5171],"class_list":["post-419340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-hockey","tag-jacob-quillan","tag-maple-leafs","tag-maple-leafs-lines","tag-mapleleafs","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-injuries","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-toronto-marlies-ahl","tag-torontomapleleafs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115931795928824157","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}