3. Is Nick Robertson going to get a chance?
After a great pre-season where Nick Robertson made the team out of training camp for the first time in his career, his role has already been diminished. He has played nine of the ten games this season, none in the top-six, and he was healthy scratched against the Winnipeg Jets.
Robertson has just one goal this season but he has provided scoring chances when he plays and has very good on-ice numbers. He is third on the Leafs in individual shot-attempts per 60 minutes, and he is creating more individual dangerous scoring chances per minute than Mitch Marner, Max Domi, and Bobby Mcmann.
Robertson hasn't been getting a ton of ice-time and has had a hard time scoring actual goals, but both Matthew Knies and Bobby McMann started the season hot, and recently Max Pacioretty has been great, which means it's hard for Robertson to get minutes - the Leafs are just a deep team at the wing (and this is a good thing, as internal competition is only going to make them better).
Robertson's on-ice numbers show that he should be in the lineup and that he likely deserves more opportunities, not less: 54% Corsi, 53% shots-for, 51% scoring chances, 52% dangerous chances, 66% goals-for, and 50.13% xGoals. (naturalstattrick.com).
Berube has backed him up at points this season, but the healthy scratch against Winnipeg shows us more how deep the Leafs are at the wing position than anything bad about Robertson. But it also brings back the idea of trading him and seeing him reach his potential with another organization.
Robertson has played well enough to stay in the lineup, but the lack of production is concerning. Although, to be fair, complaining about the production of a player who has played almost half of his minutes with Simon Benoit seems unfair.
Eventually he is going to have to score to stay on this team, even with the solid numbers. The Leafs would be smart to facilitate this by playing him with Nylander and putting him on the power-play.
With the recent trade of Timothy Liljegren, it will be interesting to see if Robertson is next since Calle Jarnkrok and Conor Dewar are close to returning from injury.