Nick Robertson's Future With The Leafs In Jeopardy After Game vs. Vegas Golden Knights
It was a great showing from both Nikita Grebenkin and Fraser Minten on Wednesday, and it may have signaled the end for Nick Robertson.
There was so much goodwill surrounding Nick Robertson coming into this season. After a long holdout, he signed a deal and exploded for five preseason goals.
Toronto looked like they had their next star in the making, but one goal in 17 games, and showing no signs of improvement, Robertson should be out the door sooner rather than later.
His placement alongside Fraser Minten and Nikita Grebenkin was supposed to kickstart his offensive potential, as having two of the Maple Leafs' most exciting prospects should have brought new energy.
Instead, Robertson made some critical errors that thankfully didn't end up costing the Maple Leafs against Vegas.
Heck, even AHL call-up Alex Steeves showed a ton of life on the fourth line playing in Ryan Reaves' absence, and if he can form chemistry down there, where does Robertson go?
Goodbye Nick Robertson, We Hardly Knew You
There's no place for Robertson anymore. He's had several opportunities to take charge of his own path and has consistently failed. One goal is terrible, and for a bottom six starving for offense; it's inexcusable.
The names coming back to Toronto after recovering are Auston Matthews, Max Pacioretty, Max Domi, Matthew Knies (potentially), and David Kampf.
All of these supplant Robertson in both value and experience and do much more than Robertson can.
Toronto might need to cut ties with Robertson in order to shore up some pieces they need, like a true third-line center.
His potential is going to entice a lot of teams to take a flier on him and they may give up a lot to take a gamble on a potential star.
While he hasn't gotten as many chances to play as he would like, when he was given time at least last season, he performed.
Scoring 14 goals in 56 games while averaging less than 12 minutes of ice time.
It's odd then how he can be given a lot of chances and do absolutely nothing; even when he was disgruntled he at least scored.
Perhaps there is some mental block holding him back and not letting him perform to the best of his ability.
Nick Robertson had so many chances, and while he wasn't given a lot of time under Sheldon Keefe, he has yet to impress under Craig Berube.
Maybe Keefe knew something we didn't, and perhaps it's not the coaches who are the problem with Robertson's production.
| POLL | ||
Will the Maple Leafs get rid of Nick Robertson? | ||
| Yes and they should too! | 1040 | 84.6 % |
| No he can still be good! | 189 | 15.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
