Maple Leafs recall top prospect

The Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled top prospect Nicholas Robertson to the NHL lineup. This recall comes after Robertson’s red-hot start to the AHL season, where he’s scored 11 points in only nine games, good for a Top 20 spot in the league’s scoring.

Toronto is granted the roster spot to make this move thanks to the slew of injuries to their defense. They currently have four defensemen facing injuries, including Jake McCabe, who is the only one of the four to not be on injured reserve. Instead, he and fellow defenseman Maxime Lajoie have operated as the team’s two scratches. With so much roster attention needing to go to the defense, Toronto hasn’t been carrying an extra forward.

Robertson will seemingly step into that spot, although his hot start to the season could earn him a crack at the lineup. Robertson has played in 31 NHL games over the last three seasons, scoring three goals and seven points. Five of those points came in the 15 games he received last season; the most he’s played in a single NHL season. But injuries have proven detrimental to the 22-year-old winger, who missed most of the 2022-23 season with a shoulder injury. Now healthy once again, Robertson is looking to make up for lost time in his development curve and prove to the Leafs organization that he’s still the prospect that everyone was excited about following the 2019 NHL Draft.

Toronto is in need of some kind of spark. The team has 36 goals-for on the season, neatly ranking them 16th in the league. Nearly all of their scoring has come from the usual suspects, with Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, and William Nylander being the only players to score over 10 points through the team’s first 11 games. Other than the star-studded quartet, four members of the Leafs’ bottom six have fewer than two points – and two players have zero points – so far. Depth scoring has proven invaluable to recent Stanley Cup champions and will be a virtue that Toronto hopes Robertson can provide.