Nick Robertson, Leafs to part ways following trade request

On the eve of free agency, NHL teams have been sending qualifying offers to their pending RFAs all day, and for the Maple Leafs, they sent qualifying offers to Connor Dewar, Alex Steeves, Timothy Liljegren, and Robertson. However, as Chris Johnston reports, it seems as if Robertson has no plans on signing an extension in Toronto and has informed the club of his desires to be traded.

The former 2nd round pick from the 2019 NHL Entry Draft has had a rocky start to his NHL career with just 87 games played in parts of 4 seasons. Robertson has dealt with a myriad of injuries but even when inserted in the lineup, he never made the most of his opportunities.

If this is the end of Robertson's Maple Leafs tenure, he will walk away with 17 goals and 34 points in 87 regular season games and 1 goal in 10 post-season contests. However, he is coming off his best season to date with 14 goals and 27 points in 56 contests, while averaging 11:23 ATOI. At the AHL-level, Robertson was more productive as he scored 27 goals and 57 points in 60 games in parts of 4 seasons with the Toronto Marlies.

The Maple Leafs have had a busy day so far as they extended Timothy Liljegren and Max Domi. They are reportedly on the verge of signing Chris Tanev, and decided not to extend a qualifying offer to Noah Gregor, who now walks into unrestricted free agency.

Tomorrow's free agent frenzy should provide some fireworks as the Leafs currently have $13 million in projected cap space, minus whatever Tanev eats up when his contract is announced.

Source for Nick Robertson's statistics: Hockey-Reference
Nicholas Robertson