Confirmed deal : Toronto Maple Leafs Should Trade Nick Robertson To Dallas Stars

 

The Toronto Maple Leafs scratched Nick Robertson on Tuesday night against the Philadelphia Flyers,, which could signify the end of his career in the blue-and-white.

Instead of keeping the Nick Robertson-Max Domi-Bobby McMann third-line together, which has been working well, the Craig Berube decided to scratch Robertson in-exchange for Ryan Reaves.

 

can justify the decision because the head coach wanted to add a physical player to intimidate Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway, who had injured Jake McCabe in the previous game. (Though Reaves proved to be useless in the game, not fighting and actually scoring on his own net).

As much as I don’t think Reaves should play every night, especially in the playoffs, his presence is still needed in the game of hockey. I know it sounds dumb that adding a tough-guy who plays five minutes per night, who probably won’t even fight, scares a bunch of grown men, but it’s just how it works in the sport and I’m totally fine with it.

However, the one thing that I am not fine with is the decision to scratch Robertson ahead of Reaves. Conor Dewar had a fight and made an impact against the Flyers on Tuesday, but I really thought the team would have scratched him and kept that nice third-line together, but clearly, Berube had other thoughts.

 

By scratching Robertson, it signals to me that he’s not going to get a lot of playoff minutes and the team is gearing up for a change on that third-line. There have been a ton of rumors floating around the Leafs acquiring a third-line centre and if they do that, it’ll most likely push Domi to the wing and Robertson out of the line-up, as McMann isn’t going anywhere.