Toronto Maple Leafs better not trade Nick Robertson

The Toronto Maple Leafs have yet to re-sign RFA Nick Robertson, which has sparked more trade rumors.

If the Toronto Maple Leafs decided to trade Robertson, that would be a terrible decision, especially because a new coach has an opportunity to get the most ouf of him. As much as I really liked and respected Sheldon Keefe, I think his biggest mistake was how he handled Robertson and the core-four.

I understand that you'd love to play your top four players on the team's top-two lines every night, but John Tavares should have been the team's third-line centre and/or one of either Mitch Marner or William Nylander should have been experimented at centre. If you could balance your line-up by having a combination of Auston Matthews/William Nylander or Mitch Marner/John Tavares as your three centre's, this team would be set up just as good as anyone else.

Just look at what happened when they traded for Ryan O'Reilly. Although O'Reilly mostly played in the top-six, they had an incredibly balanced line-up with him as the 3C and could do the same thing internally. Hopefully newly appointed head coach Craig Berube can think that way especially since Nylander is now locked up for another eight years.

Toronto Maple Leafs better not trade Nick Robertson

Robertson was never given a true opportunity in the team's top-six to excel and the team needs to give him that shot this year. I don't need 82 games of it, but I need one month of action to see if it will work, which is roughly 15 games. If it doesn't work in 15 games, ship him out to Utah for a bag of pucks, but if it does work, you all of a sudden have a lethal goal-scorer for most likely under $2M.

Robertson has the opportunity to be twice the player of Calle Jarnkrok, or four times the player of David Kampf, for the same price (or less) if he can find some chemistry in the top-six. As a result, they need to at least try this before they trade him.

If Robertson can fit in the top-six, and both (or one) of Fraser Minten and Easton Cowan can crack the line-up and you move Tavares to 3C, you all of a sudden have a fantastic balance looking something like this:

- 1st Line: Nick Robertson/Auston Matthews/Max Domi
- 2nd Line: Matthew Knies/William Nylander/Mitch Marner
- 3rd Line: Bobby McMann/John Tavares/Fraser Minten
- 4th Line: Pontus Holmberg/David Kampf/Easton Cowan

If Tavares was willing to give up the "C" to help his team, you'd have to imagine that he'd also be happy to take a "lesser" role on this team and be the team's third-line centre. He'd be able to dominate the opposition by playing these minutes on a nightly basis, but more importantly, the team will be much more balanced.

Trading Robertson is a terrible decision and if Brad Treliving does it, he should be fired.