The recent Blues deals complicate matters between Nick Robertson and the Toronto Maple Leafs

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River Hawk
August 22, 2024 (7:59)

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After details of the offer sheets the St. Louis Blues sent for Edmonton's Dylan Holloway, matters between Nick Robertson and the Toronto Maple Leafs have become much more complicated.

Offseason trading had seemed to slow to mostly a halt in the last few weeks, with very little action to be seen within the league. However, the St. Louis Blues recently broke rank, sending out offer sheets for Oilers Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway. After taking some time to consider their options, Edmonton GM Stan Bowman decided against matching the offer sheets, opting to receive picks for the players instead. Philip Broberg got two years at $4.58 million each year, while Dylan Holloway was signed for the same length at $2.29 million AAV.

"We spent a lot of time, like multiple days, going through what each of those scenarios would look like [...] and eventually what we did was decided, you know, which one just made the most sense from where we were today."

While this former Oilers forward's new contract may seem unrelated to the Maple Leafs, the value actually could prove another complicating factor when working forward with Nick Robertson. The 22-year-old forward has made it abundantly clear he desires to play elsewhere in the league, despite Brad Treliving's public hopes to find the right price to keep him.

Unfortunately for the Toronto GM, the number on the Blues' offer sheet for Dylan Holloway will provide his camp more leverage than the team will likely have available in cap space. Despite being a second-round pick, Nick Robertson has outperformed Dylan Holloway in their time in the NHL, recording a point a little more than every 28 minutes of career play, versus more than every 51 minutes for Holloway.

Though this is no guarantee that Toronto's management teams will take Dylan Holloway's offer sheet as any point of leverage in negotiations, it is hard to ignore the fact that both similarly-positioned players have different results, and one has outperformed the other. Hopefully for Nick Robertson, this either gets him the price he wants or the availability the Maple Leafs need.

Source: Maple Leafs Daily
St. Louis Blues' offer sheet puts the Maple Leafs in a very tough spot with Nick Robertson