'(Craig) Berube Assured Nick Robertson That He'd Be Given A Probability': Maple Leafs' Negotiations with Restricted Free Agent to Reportedly Kind Itself Out Forward of Coaching Camp

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September 10, 2024

It seems Nick Robertson might stay with the Toronto Maple Leafs for one more season after asking for a commerce earlier this summer season.

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Based on TSN’s Darren Dreger, who appeared on TSN 1050’s First Up on Monday morning, the 22-year-old restricted free agent and the Maple Leafs will get a contract finished earlier than coaching camp.

“I imagine that they will get one thing finished, that Nick Robertson’s doubtless going to return to the Toronto Maple Leafs. This was a course of, and that is a phrase we all the time use round free brokers at sure instances of the yr associated to contracts. Robertson has his personal private causes. Whether or not it was beneath the steering of Sheldon Keefe, or perhaps he simply felt like he wasn’t the fitting match, that he was being miscast, or he wasn’t being given alternative in Toronto,” Dreger reported.

“I do know that he had conversations with Craig Berube, the brand new coach of the Leafs, and Berube assured him that, look, ‘Check out our left aspect, man.’ Like there’s nothing however alternative on this lineup with the holes that they’ve there. And I do know that Berube assured Nick Robertson that he’d be given an opportunity. They just like the skillset, so long as the hockey gods smile down on him and he can keep wholesome, why would not you need to struggle for a spot within the top-six, top-nine?”

Since being drafted by the Maple Leafs within the second spherical (53rd total) within the 2019 NHL Draft, Robertson has solely appeared in 87 NHL video games resulting from quite a few accidents and being unable to snag a full-time spot on the NHL roster.

The winger performed 56 video games with Toronto final season, scoring 14 targets and 13 assists for 27 factors. He averaged 11:23 of ice time all through that span in a restricted position inside the roster.

As Dreger reported, Toronto’s left-wing depth is extremely skinny, with the likes of Matthew Knies, Bobby McMann, Connor Dewar, and probably, Pontus Holmberg enjoying a task. Robertson doubtless acknowledged that — in his discussions with Berube — there is a good probability he might play a big position with the Maple Leafs forward of this season.

And together with that, Dreger says there wasn’t a lot of a market across the NHL for Robertson’s providers.

“I believe they will get one thing finished. I believe that this has been managed correctly. Yeah, it has been a sluggish play. I am positive that Treliving, as a result of he is concerned in each trade-related dialog, has explored what kind of curiosity there’s in Nick Robertson throughout the league, and admittedly, I do not suppose there’s a ton of curiosity,” Dreger mentioned.

“That is to not say he isn’t participant, or will not be a extremely good participant. But it surely feels like he is leaning extra to recognizing what he has in Toronto and making the very best of the scenario. That is in all probability going to kind itself out within the days forward right here.”

As an RFA, Robertson has till Dec. 1 at 5 p.m. ET to signal a contract with Toronto. If a deal is not finished by then, the ahead will miss out on your complete NHL season. However as Dreger stories, that is unlikely to occur, and Robertson might be at coaching camp, which begins in simply over every week.