The Toronto Maple Leafs are heading toward a potentially contentious arbitration hearing.
One hockey writer thinks the Leafs should just settle beforehand and avoid all the trouble.
The player heading toward arbitration is Nicholas Robertson. He’s coming off a season where he stayed mostly healthy and appeared in 69 games. In that time, he netted 15 goals and added seven assists.
AFP Analytics projects the 24-year old Robertson to make $1.55 million per year for two years, a $3.1 million total value.
David Alter of The Hockey News writes that the Maple Leafs should try to land a deal like that before going to arbitration, based on past history.
“There’s significant motivation for Toronto to try and settle things before the hearing begins,” Alter writes. “The last time the Leafs had an arbitration case was with goaltender Ilya Samsonov. In the end, the arbitrator awarded Samsonov a career-high $3.55 million compensation for the 2023-24 season. Despite this, the goaltender struggled badly that season and was even placed on waivers at one point. Although he eventually found his groove toward the end of the season, the goaltender admitted that arbitration case affected his confidence.”
Arbitration cases are tough. A player essentially has to listen to a team explain why the player should make less because of certain flaws.
Meanwhile, the player has to almost fight back against his own team to try and get what he feels he’s worth.
That’s what Robertson is heading for if the Maple Leafs don’t get a deal done as soon as possible.
“If the Leafs plan on retaining Robertson once his compensation for next season is set, they’ll absolutely need a breakout year from the young forward,” Alter writes. “With high-scoring forward Mitch Marner departing for the Vegas Golden Knights, the Leafs will likely replace him by committee unless a trade presents itself between now and the start of the regular season. This would be the year and the opportunity for a player like Robertson to truly bust through offensively. A 20-plus goal season would certainly go a long way, and it would mark a significant milestone for a player who once scored 55 goals with the Peterborough Petes in 2019-20. That was the season that got Toronto to fast-track him to making his NHL debut in the 2020 playoffs.”
Of course, no one player is going to replace Marner, and Alter isn’t suggesting that.
But the Maple Leafs handling things well with Robertson this offseason would be a big step toward moving that departure and into a still-promising future.
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