More trade rumors have been fuelled by the Toronto Maple Leafs’ failure to re-sign RFA Nick Robertson. A new coach has a chance to bring the best out of Robertson, thus it would be a terrible mistake if the Toronto Maple Leafs decided to trade him. Even though I had a lot of affection and respect for Sheldon Keefe, I believe that his handling of Robertson and the core-four was his biggest error.
While I can see your desire to start your best four players on the team’s top two lines each night, John Tavares ought to have been the team’s third-line center, and/or William Nylander or Mitch Marner need to have had some center experimenting. This club would be as well-positioned as any other if you could combine the three centers Auston Matthews/William Nylander or Mitch Marner/John Tavares to balance your lineup. Take a look at what transpired when they acquired Ryan O’Reilly. With O’Reilly at the 3C, they had an exceptionally balanced lineup and could do the same thing internally, despite the fact that he played in the top six most of the time. Hopefully, Craig Berube, the recently hired head coach, can see things that way, especially considering Nylander’s contract is now set for another eight years.
The Toronto Maple Leafs should not make a trade. Robertson Nick
The squad needs to give Robertson a chance to succeed this year because he was never really given the chance to play in the top six. I don’t need 82 games of it, but I do need to play for maybe 15 games in a month to see if it works. Ship him off to Utah for a bag of pucks if it doesn’t work in 15 games, but if it does, you’ve got a deadly goal scorer for probably less than $2 million. If Robertson can establish some chemistry in the top six, he may be twice as good as Calle Jarnkrok or four times better than David Kampf for the same money (or less). Consequently, You suddenly have a great balance that looks somewhat like this if Robertson can fit in the top six, Fraser Minten and Easton Cowan can both (or one of them) crack the starting lineup, and Tavares is moved to third position. Tavares would have to be content to accept a “lesser” role on this squad and play center third if he was prepared to give up the “C” to support his team. Playing these minutes every night would allow him to dominate the competition, but more significantly, the team will be lot more balanced.
