The Toronto Maple Leafs skated Friday at the Ford Performance Centre.

All signs point to goaltender Petr Mrazek making his return against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said Friday that the 29-year-old will get the nod Saturday assuming he gets through morning skate feeling ready. For now, he remains on the injured reserve list.

“Our intent is for him to play tomorrow,” Keefe said. “Today was another full practice for him so as long as he gets through tomorrow’s morning skate still feeling like he is right now then the plan will be to activate and to play him tomorrow. But he has to get to that point.”

A groin injury has kept Mrazek out of action since Oct. 30, but the 29-year-old he said Friday he was “feeling good,” adding his one-game conditioning stint with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies helped give him the confidence he was ready to return.

“It’s always different whether you’re practising or playing games, so I’m happy I had a chance to go there and compete for one game,” Mrazek said of his performance Monday, a 5-1 loss. “You learn the situation is different, you see them different. Two-on-one, three-on-two, the power play, so I’m sure it was helpful.

“It’s always a relief when you’re coming from injury and you don’t know how you’re going to feel in a game, so I was happy I had no problem with that.”

Mrazek said he’s been itching to get back to game action for quite a while but cautioned that groin injuries are nothing to rush, particularly for goaltenders.

“Especially when you want to compete, you want to play games but that’s how it is – especially goaltenders,” he said. “You have to be careful with groins and you have to make sure it heals well so that’s something that you really just can’t control, and the rest happens.”

Signed to a three-year, $11.4 million deal over the summer, Mrazek has appeared in just two games with his new club and owns a 4.20 goals-against average and .877 save percentage.

While Toronto’s complement to Jack Campbell seems ready to return, forward Ilya Mikheyev isn’t quite there yet.

The injured winger was a full participant in Friday’s practice, but Keefe said he still needs to build up his strength before returning to game action.

“[Mikheyev] was out there today, it was really his first practice – full practice – with us and it was a brief practice. Just trying to get him back up to speed… I think it’s a strength issue right now. We continue to monitor that and when that gets to an acceptable level then you’re ready to play. But in the meantime, he’s going to continue to work out here to stay sharp.”

Mikheyev is yet to make his regular-season debut after suffering a broken thumb in the preseason finale that required surgery. Keefe said the Russian is scheduled to see a specialist on Friday, but the team is happy with how things have healed.

“[Mikheyev] is such a dynamic player for us, both sides of the puck,” captain John Tavares said. “And you know, his work ethic, the way he approaches every day. I think the drive that he has to make a big impact, especially his skill set, can obviously be massive for us. He’s such a weapon throughout the lineup and brings so much to the table.

“We love him as a guy and in the locker room he continues to feel ever more comfortable in his own skin being here for a few years now. So, we’re excited for him. It’s been a long process for him, and it’s been tough. I know he took it really tough, the injury, initially.”

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Ondrej Kase was alongside Auston Matthews and Michael Bunting on the first line at Friday’s skate.

Despite impressive production so far this season, Keefe said earlier in the week he was hesitant to move Kase to the first line after Mitch Marner went down with a shoulder injury.

The Leafs tried Kase up front in their game against the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 13, but Keefe said Kase told him afterwards he “didn’t feel like himself” and the team initially elected to keep him in his regular spot on the third line.

But after Kase’s two-goal outing against the Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday night, it was apparently time for a promotion.  

“I talked to [Kase] this morning and just feel like he’s in a really good place right now coming off of a great game last night,” Keefe said. “Obviously two goals and also just played a really good, consistent game and that’s what the reality of our situation is – that despite the fact that we like him playing with Kampf and the way that that has gone, just with no Marner, no Spezza, we need to get a little bit more out of everybody and that includes Kase.”

The 26-year-old winger now has eight goals and four assists in 25 games this season. Not bad for someone on a one-year, $1.25 million deal.

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The Leafs also switched things up on the backend Friday, moving Justin Holl to the third pairing alongside rookie Kristians Rubins and bumping Timothy Liljegren up alongside Jake Muzzin.

Keefe initially made the switch midway through Thursday’s loss and elected to stick with that grouping Friday.

“I guess the biggest thing really is just getting back to his game. Which, for me, is utilizing his speed and his length defensively to close on people and defend that way,” Keefe said of Holl. “And also, offensively using his speed and his reach to get out of trouble and move the puck up to the forwards quickly and efficiency. Right now, I think he’s in his head a little bit in terms of what’s the right play at the right time and that tends to happen when the season isn’t going to the way that you’d like it to.

“But like we’ve talked about and established, he’s an important player for us and we’ve moved the pairs around a little bit throughout the season and did here again today like we did last night. But it doesn’t change the fact that he is an important guy for us that takes on a lot of difficult assignments and plays a lot of difficult minutes for us.”

Holl was a minus-2 on Thursday night in 18:27 of ice time.

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Saturday will be Toronto’s fifth game in the past week after a back-to-back last weekend followed by games Tuesday and Thursday.

Toronto won 15 of 17 from Oct. 27 to Dec. 1 but have dropped three of four since.

The team called off their skate Wednesday and kept things brief Friday afternoon at the Ford Performance Centre.

“We took a day off the other day. And that’s what you get in the NHL, right? You get one day, that’s what you get to recharge the batteries and you’ve got to get right back at it. That’s the nature of our schedule,” Keefe said of the team’s recent stretch.

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Lines and pairings:

Bunting - Matthews - Kase
Kerfoot - Tavares - Nylander
Ritchie - Kampf - Simmonds
Mikheyev - Engvall - Clifford
Extras: Steeves, Spezza (suspended)

Rielly - Brodie
Muzzin - Liljegren
Rubins - Holl
Dermott (non-contact) - Biega

Mrazek
Campbell
Woll