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The Toronto Maple Leafs rookies will play their first game at the Traverse City Prospect Tournament in Michigan against the Dallas Stars on Thursday, with a number of youngsters looking to make first impressions and others attempting to progress towards their ultimate goal of making the NHL, but in that group of 27 players, winger Nick Robertson stands alone.
The 21-year-old forward will be playing in Traverse City for the third time, taking part in the tournament in hopes of showing he can stay healthy and build some momentum for the start of Leafs training camp next week to make a case for making the NHL roster in his third professional season.
"I've been off for about three months or so and I definitely want to be in game shape when it really matters, going to preseason and then going to camp with the Leafs." Robertson said at the Ford Performance Centre on Wednesday. "This is another opportunity to kind of get some game reps and get myself back into it."
Robertson has been near the top of the Leafs prospect pool since leading the OHL in goals with 55 in 2019-20 and playing four playoff games with Toronto in the bubble against Columbus, but the 2019 second-round pick has been plagued by misfortune the last two seasons, suffering an injury in his first NHL regular season game against Ottawa in October 2020 that limited him to six NHL games and 27 total 2020-21 and a non-displaced right fibula fracture last October that kept him out of the Marlies lineup until February.
The young winger spent this summer working out with older brother Jason (currently a restricted free agent), building up his upper body and leg strength.
"I'm confident in myself, that I am that caliber player to play with the Leafs and we'll see how it goes," Robertson. "I was in the same situation last year and I got hurt again, so I guess you can say I reset again last year and I got injured again."
The issue for Robertson is where he could potentially slot in on the big club. With his skill set as a scoring winger, he would likely be a fit on the top two lines with either Auston Matthews or John Tavares, but both left-wing slots are filled by Calder Trophy finalist Michael Bunting and veteran Alex Kerfoot. With both entering the final year of their contracts, Leafs GM Kyle Dubas may be looking to see what Robertson does playing full-time in the AHL and exercising the option of bringing him up as a waiver-exempt player during the season, in hopes that he has enough success to stay in the NHL and gives Toronto some options towards the trade deadline.
Nick Robertson will be heading to his third prospect tournament and could start the season in the AHL unless he shows signs of being ready for the NHL at training camp. #Leafspic.twitter.com/KhDwo7WCrk
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