The Toronto Maple Leafs have had a successful 2024-25 NHL season to date. Having secured more than 30 wins already, they currently sit near the top of the Atlantic Division, as well as being among the top 10 teams in the league.
But despite all of that, the Toronto Maple Leafs somehow find themselves too close for comfort as the competition has closed the gap in the overall playoff picture. In fact, believe it or not, the Leafs are only six points ahead of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
With that in mind, the Maple Leafs will need all the help that they can get in the final three months of the season. There’s no question that they could get some of that help by means of a trade or two in the coming weeks.
But at the same time, the Leafs will need some of their current players who had been underachieving this year to step up their game to help provide more significant contributions to the team. As a result, let’s take a look at four Maple Leafs players that will need to up their game down the stretch to help make a difference going forward.
4 Toronto Maple Leafs Players That Need to Step Up Their Game Down the Stretch
Nick Robertson
After having an explosive training camp in which he led the team in goals during the preseason, Nick Robertson had been quite the disappointment to say the least once the regular season started. Many expected him to build upon his solid 2023-24 campaign in which he registered 14 goals and 13 assists for 27 points in 56 games played.
However, Robertson has been way off his scoring pace from last season, having tallied just 8 goals and 4 assists for 12 points in 45 games played already this year. He did have a solid stretch at one point in time when he formed a solid third line trio with Max Domi and Bobby McMann. In doing so, Robertson recorded 4 goals and 3 assists over a six-game stretch towards the end of December. But since then, his flashes of brilliance have come few and far in between.
For a player that mainly specializes as a potent scorer, when he isn’t doing that, it becomes harder to justify their playing time in the lineup on a nightly basis.
As a result, Robertson will need to pick it up in the coming weeks if he wants to keep his spot in the lineup or potentially on the team roster.