With just over 20 games remaining in the regular season and the Toronto Maple Leafs currently occupying the top spot in the Atlantic division, the club is going to need more than just the big boys to perform down the stretch if they want to enter the playoffs as the Atlantic's top team.
Nick Robertson has provided the Toronto Maple Leafs with respectable point production in the latter half of this season thus far, including two goals in Chicago Sunday night, and another one against Boston on Monday. The Leafs would love for that to continue.
Robertson started the season by signing a one-year, $875,000 deal with the Maple Leafs after being an RFA all summer and even requesting a trade from the team on June 30th of last year.
After inking that one-year deal, Robertson then went on to have an incredible pre-season, racking up five goals, and had fans' expectations quite high going into the season.
Can Nick Roberston Provide Enough Scoring Down the Stretch?
The Leafs forward, unfortunately, then started the regular season extremely slow, collecting only one goal in his first 18 games. The California native is now up to 11 goals total on the season, meaning he's potted ten goals in the 40 games since -- obviously a much better pace.
The Maple Leafs have been starved for depth scoring all year, with several bottom six guys contributing very little offensively so far this season, such as Max Domi, Pontus Holmberg, and David Kampf, to name a few.
With the Leafs sitting atop their division, despite the lack of help from the bottom of the lineup, it means the top six guys are having a tremendous season - but they team can't only rely on them.
Mitch Marner, fresh off his 4Nations win in Boston, is having a fantastic season, maybe his best ever, and is sitting at 71 points right now and is on pace for a career-high 103 points. After dealing with some injuries at the beginning of the season, newly minted Captain Auston Matthews is over 20 goals on the season now, while William Nylander is sitting second in the league in goals, trailing only Oilers superstar Leon Draisaitl.
As Leafs fans have seen far too often before though, the big guys can't do it on their own come playoff time, and this is where depth scoring, like Nick Robertson, is incredibly important.
Robertson is a restricted free agent again after this season. Not only is Robertson providing some scoring down the stretch important for the Leafs, but it will be in his best interest as well, as he will be looking for a new contract again come the offseason.