It’s a new month and on Saturday, the Toronto Maple Leafs and forward Nicholas Robertson avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year deal that will pay the 23-year-old $1.825 million in the 2025-26 season. The Maple Leafs and Robertson had an upcoming arbitration hearing on Sunday.
The deal comes after Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the two sides were more than $1 million apart on what they had set the player’s value at with Robertson looking for $2.25 million per season and the team wanting to settle at $1.2 million.
Robertson, who played the majority of the season in the team’s middle-six, played a career-high 69 games in 2024-25, scoring 15 goals and 22 points over that span. He also averaged a career-high 12 minutes per game and seemed to have his offence sparked each time that head coach Craig Berube held him out of the lineup.
On top of the offence, Robertson finished last season with career highs in blocked shots (33) and hits (79) demonstrating that he was buying into Berube’s system. However, come playoffs, Robertson was the odd man out again with the Maple Leafs making a second-round exit against the eventual Stanley Cup winning Florida Panthers.
Since being draft by the Maple Leafs in the second round of the 2019 NHL Draft, Robertson has played 156 regular season games racking up 32 goals and 56 points, adding three points in 13 playoff games.
The deal helps the two sides avoid another sticky situation following last offseason when Robertson made it known to the team that he wanted to be traded – a request that was later retracted following a discussion with incoming coach Berube.
While Robertson will still have to fight for a place in the lineup this season, coming in as a veteran of 150-plus games could finally give him the upper hand.
