The Toronto Maple Leafs have had a relatively busy offseason. One of their goals has been to make up for the offence that the recently traded Mitch Marner provided the team.
On Saturday morning, they settled with RFA Nick Robertson, avoiding the arbitration hearing that was scheduled for Sunday, August 3rd.
Robertson was drafted by the Maple Leafs 53rd overall in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. The 5-foot-9, 178 lb, forward recorded 22 points in 69 regular season games. The young winger added two points in three Stanley Cup Playoff games.
By retaining Robertson, the Maple Leafs keep a forward who has top-six potential that has not yet been realized.
Maple Leafs Avoid Repeating Past Mistake
Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the signing. The two parties agreed to a one-year $1.85-million contract. On Friday, Friedman reported that the player was seeking $2.25 million while the team wanted $1.2 million.
After the Robertson signing, the Maple Leafs are left with $1,919,722 in cap space.
David Alter of The Hockey News wrote about the Maple Leafs needing to settle with Robertson before the arbitration hearing. He specifically mentioned the previous arbitration hearing with Ilya Samsonov as an example of why they needed not to let it get to that point.
“There’s significant motivation for Toronto to try and settle things before the hearing begins,” Alter wrote. “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,” Alter continued. “Although he eventually found his groove toward the end of the season, the goaltender admitted that arbitration case affected his confidence.”
Samsonov would move on to the Vegas Golden Knights after that contract expired.
Maple Leafs’ RFA Was One of 11 Who Went the Arbitration Route
Robertson was the last of 11 players to settle with their respective teams before their arbitration hearings.
Morgan Barron, Lukas Dostal, Drew Helleson, Kaapo Kakko, Dylan Samberg, Arvid Soderblom, Jayden Struble, Conor Timmins, Maksim Tsyplakov, and Gabriel Vilardi were the other ten players to file for arbitration. Here are the new contractions for each of the players:
- Barron: Two years, $1.85 million
- Dostal: Five years, $6.5 million
- Helleson: Two years, $1.1 million
- Kakko: Three years, $4.53 million
- Samberg: Three years, $5.75 million
- Soderblom: Two years, $2.75 million
- Struble: Two years, $1.41 million
- Timmins: Two years, $2.2 million
- Tsyplakov: Two years, $2.25 million
- Vilardi: Six years, $7.5 million
Settling a contract before an arbitration hearing does not mean that a trade is out of the cards. Last season, Martin Necas, Jack Drury, Ryan Lindgren, and Ty Emberson were a few players who settled with their respective teams, but then were traded before the Trade Deadline.
If reports about the Maple Leafs’ interest in Jack Roslovic are accurate, they aren’t done making moves. Their available salary cap space is less than Roslovic’s reported asking price (two to three years at around $3 million).
For the Maple Leafs to make this work, they still have a trade or two ahead of them. Now that Robertson has a defined contract, trading him should be easier, if that is the route they decide to go.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Maple Leafs New Deal Avoids Big Mistake With RFA Forward appeared first on Heavy Sports.