The Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to move on from Nick Robertson but after scoring a timely goal against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night, head coach Craig Berube praised the young winger.
With William Nylander out of action and absent from Saturday's game, someone needed to replace him on the Leafs' first line. The Swedish star was placed up there next to Auston Matthews and Bobby McMann as Berube put in the work to shuffle up the lineup as an attempt to provide some sort of spark. Well just one game after making that change, Robertson had to come up from being a healthy scratch and was tossed into the lions' den on the top line.
And Robertson almost immediately delivered. In the final minutes of the first period, he opened the scoring in the dramatic overtime win for the Maple Leafs over the Sabres on Saturday. Robertson cleaned up the chance created by linemates Matthews and rookie Easton Cowan; streaking in front and wiring the puck past the goal line.
It was a powerful effort for Robertson's first goal and second point of the season. Such an effort and an overall game from the 24-year-old that Berube gave some good words.
Berube on Robertson: "Robbie did a good job. I thought he added energy to that line with his speed, and ended up scoring a big goal for us, which is great." #Leafs
— Terry Koshan 🇺🇦 (@koshtorontosun) October 26, 2025
"Robbie did a good job," Berube told the media, via The Toronto Sun's Terry Koshan. "I thought he added energy to that line with his speed, and ended up scoring a big goal for us, which is great."
And looking at some more of the finer details to Robertson's performance on Saturday, there was some minor impact. Overall, Robertson had two shot attempts, two registered scoring chances, and actually had two hits, according to Natural Stat Trick. When Robertson was on the ice at 5-on-5, the Leafs had a 12-11 shot attempt advantage but was greatly outplayed when it came to the quality of those chances, earning just 28.02 percent of the expected goals share during that time.
So, given how well the Sabres played overall when Robertson was on that top line, maybe he isn't fit for that role for much longer. But, does Berube praising the 24-year-old make it more likely that he stays in the lineup at all? Possibly. Does it make him a lock? Not at all.
We'll have to see where it goes from here, but the rumour mill is churning.