The Toronto Maple Leafs will play their 13th game of the season on Thursday night without forward William Nylander.

TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger reported Monday that a gap remains in negotiations between the Maple Leafs and the restricted free agent, whose return doesn’t appear to be imminent.

Alternate captain Morgan Rielly said Wednesday the team is keeping their focus on the ice as they await Nylander's return.

“Well, it’s weird, it’s different,” Rielly told the TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun in an article posted to The Athletic. “I’ve played with Willie for a few years now and I have a good friendship with him. Obviously he’s not here and that’s a topic that we talk about, it gets addressed over conversations amongst us. I think earlier in this process, whether it was the opening week or two weeks or during training camp, we were in touch with Willie and talking to him, not about contract stuff, but just telling him that we miss him.

“And now I think it’s a little bit of the time where we just have to concentrate on our jobs. Willie has an agent, he has people around him, he knows what he has planned, so it’s really out of our control. All we can do is play hockey. So as of right now, we’re not overly worried about what’s going on with that, we’re just trying to come to work every day and do our jobs. When Willie shows up, I’m sure he’ll be ready to go.”

Over the last month, Nylander has spent time skating with Austria’s Dornbirn Bulldogs and joined Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas for a one-on-one meeting in Switzerland on Oct. 17. If he fails to sign a contract prior to Dec. 1, he will not be eligible to play in the NHL this season.

Rielly said his teammates in Toronto simply want Nylander to know he remains a part of locker room, even as the process drags into the second month of the season.

“I think when people go through these things it’s often times dependent on their personalities,” Rielly said. “I think Willie is a mature young man. He’s very independent. I don’t think you worry about Will too much. It’s more of a, `Where are you at mentally, physically, geographically,’ he was in Austria at one point so you want to keep in touch so when he gets here, he can just be a part of the guys again. But we don’t listen to the speculation about what’s going to happen with him. We can only worry about doing our jobs.

"We can’t worry about something that’s completely out of our control.’’

Nylander is the first player of the Maple Leafs young core to hit restricted free agency, but he'll be followed by Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner in July. Marner told LeBrun he's, of course, hoping to avoid the same situation Nylander is in, but said he will also stay out of the negotiations.

“Definitely, yeah," Marner said of wanting to avoid missing games next fall. "But that’s why you hire an agent. The agent and the team will do all the talking. Our job is to stay out of it.’’

Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan prior to the season the team is expecting their "young leaders" to make sacrifices to keep their core together. Matthews gave a similar answer to the one Marner gave LeBrun, when asked to comment.

"That's why we have agents, right? Let them figure it out, talk to management," Matthews said on Oct. 3. "We'll stay out of it and just play hockey."

Nylander debuted at No. 1 on the TSN Trade Bait list Wednesday, with TSN Senior Hockey Reporter Frank Seravalli writing "the probability of a trade seemingly increases every day leading up to 5 p.m. on Dec. 1 so long as the two sides remain far apart."

The Maple Leafs, who are off to an 8-4 start without Nylander this season, host the Dallas Stars on Thursday night.