Auston Matthews will play Saturday night against the New York Rangers, head coach Mike Babcock announced.

The 20-year-old was on the ice for the Leafs during their morning skate on the top line with Zach Hyman and William Nylander. 

The Leafs' medical staff and Babcock did talk about holding Matthews out another game with the holiday break looming, but Babcock said they have probably already gone beyond what they needed to do to get him healthy. 

"He's ready to go so he's going," Babcock said. 

Patrick Marleau and Ron Hainsey did not skate Saturday morning, but Babcock also said they will play Saturday.  

Matthews has been out since Dec. 9 after colliding with teammate Morgan Rielly. Matthews said he was experiencing normal concussion symptoms during his six-game absence.

“Just normal concussion symptoms I guess, don’t need to go any farther than that,” Matthews said Friday. “I think just later on after the Pittsburgh [game], just colliding with Morgan, later on that night and into the next day I wasn’t feeling very well, went through all the return to play [tests] and all the protocols and everything and obviously they take it pretty seriously. They deemed me obviously out, so I went through all that stuff and I feel great now.”

Without Matthews, the Leafs have gone 2-4.