After a summer in which he requested a trade and his future with the Toronto Maple Leafs was in doubt, Nick Robertson emphatically won a job in training camp, scoring in seemingly every game.
However, the Toronto Maple Leafs season is four games old and Nick Robertson has not carried his strong camp into the regular season.
After four games, Robertson has no goals, no assists and a horrendous 35% expected goals rating. (although its a very small sample size skewed by one weird game). (Naturalstattrick.com).
After sitting Max Pacioretty on Wednesday, Robertson stands a high chance of sitting out one of the team's next games. This would be a mistake for Craig Berube.
The Toronto Maple Leafs need to give Robertson a real chance to succeed, and he hasn't gotten one yet.
Nick Robertson Deserves a Real Opportunity with the Toronto Maple Leafs
If there is one player on the Leafs who is overmatched and playing way too high up in the lineup, it's Pontus Holmberg. Holmberg is a fourth liner and nothing more at this point, but the Leafs have had him paired with Robertson all season.
In addition to Holmberg, Robertson's other most common linemates are Conor Timmins, Max Pacioretty, Simon Benoit and Morgan Rielly (who has not really played all that great so far this year).
Robertson hasn't done well, but he hasn't really been given any kind of a chance. Of course, Knies and McMann have laid a solid claim to the two winger jobs not taken by Marner and Nylander, but the Leafs lack of centre options is stifling Robertson.
Even the other night when they had Tavars on the third line with Robertson, they were still stuck with Holmberg. Additionally, the Leafs were up early and the "score effects" led to a statistically brutal game for the Leafs that the score did not reflect. Being that this made up 25% of the total sample size, Roberston's stats so far are all but meaningless.
Robertson is also averaging just over one minute of ice-time on the power-play per game.
The way in which to get Robertson going is to balance the lines better and give him a better chance to succeed. That means playing regularly with Tavares and a better winger than Holmberg. That means more power-play time, and at least a chance to get some minutes with Matthews or Marner or Nylander.
Nick Robertson proved in training camp that when you give him a chance, he'll run with it. Expecting him to succeed in the role he's been given so far, however, is ridiculous. Nick Robertson hasn't carried his success from training camp over to the regular season just yet, but so far that's on Berube and not Robertson.