Trading Nick Robertson Is a Horrible Idea
I know that it always seems cool to get a potential game changing defenseman.
But Jacob Chychrun does not have that potential.
In fact, his career potential is way lower than Nick Robertson’s.
The Leafs best strength – scoring goals – has failed them frequently in the playoffs. So much so that I think it is preposterous to trade Robertson under the reasoning that their forwards are already “good enough.”
The Leafs defense might not have a version of Auston Matthews on it. That is OK, since most teams don’t have that. It would be nice to have Victor Hedman or Cale Makar, or even Dougie Hamilton.
But Chychrun isn’t on that level and the odds are he never will be.
Nick Robertson is one day going to score 40 goals. It should not be in front of 2300 fans for the world’s worst professional sports organization.
Chychrun is an excellent player, but he isn’t going to come here and be the kind of Victor Hedman-esque pillar that you should be targeting if you are going to pay an exorbitant price in a trade.
The trade that the Toronto Sun proposes would be good if the Toronto Maple Leafs were getting Moritz Seider. But It’s just really stupid to pay that much for Jacob Chychrun.
If there was a chance to add a Chara, Hedman, Makar type player in his prime, you almost couldn’t overpay to acquire that.
If I thought it was even 50% that Chychrun was capable of that, I’d deal Robertson, and much much more.
But he isn’t. He is just a good offensive player who shoots left and likely wouldn’t even be the Leafs best defenseman.
With Sandin and Liljegren combining for a lower cap hit, why are we even having this conversation?