[ad_1]
TORONTO – Nick Robertson is ready to go again.
After another year in which injuries slowed his ascent, the 21-year-old Toronto Maple Leafs prospect flew back onto the ice at the Ford Performance Center in Etobicoke, Ont., on Wednesday, preparing to suit up for another prospect tournament in Traverse City, Mich., this week – and another bid to become the Maple Leafs’ x-factor.
“It’s just another opportunity to get some game reps,” Robertson said after practice. “I think I’ve been off about three months or so and I definitely want to be in game shape when it really matters, going into pre-season and going into camp with the Leafs.”
The 2019 second-round pick doesn’t have much to prove against his fellow blue-and-white prospects, his true competition poised to take the ice at the main training camp down the line. But Robertson is well aware of the eyes that will be on him in Traverse City as he looks to handle his role as a young veteran.
“That’s for sure [about] plays the right way. I’m definitely going to play a lot more minutes, be counted on in more of a leadership role now,” he said of his goals for the tournament, which runs from Thursday to Monday. “I definitely want to put that expectation and that pressure on myself to do well and play well.”
For assistant coach Manny Malhotra, who will serve as the head coach of the Traverse City tournament team, that’s exactly the type of boxes he and his staff will expect the young Maple Leafs to check.
“The big thing for us in camp is we want to see their competitive nature,” Malhotra said. “How are they going to compete? Do they have the ability to challenge for spots? Do they take the information and immediately apply it to the game? That’s the hockey IQ. We’re looking for them to give their best and show us what they are able to do.”
As for Robertson, Malhotra said the young winger’s desire to find progress in Traverse City has already been clear.
“Just watching him on Day 1 and the last few days, he’s prepared well. He looks sharp,” the coach said. “You can tell he is hungry to perform and succeed in his goals this year. My role in this Traverse City camp is to prepare guys like him the best I can, guys like Alex Steeves — guys who want to take that next step — just make sure they’re ready for main camp and to give their best.”
It’s been an offseason of toil and progress for Robertson after a 2021-22 campaign in which he battled multiple injuries, produced at a point-per-game pace over a 28-game stretch with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies last season, and talked together. his first regular-season NHL goal during a 10-game run with the big club.
With his prowess on the sheet already undeniable, work this summer was concentrated in the gym.
“Getting bigger and stronger,” he said of his focus this offseason. “I think I have gotten a little thicker in the legs and upper body and am working on being stable on the ice. … At one point in the summer I was about 185 and then I kind of simmered down. I think the main focus sometimes as a smaller guy is that you have to add weight, but I think for me, I just added thickness, I added more foundation.
“I did better in my bike test than I’ve ever done before, so my numbers have definitely gone through the roof significantly.”
As he looks to take the next step in his career, there may be no better mentor for young Robertson than the man who will lead the bench for this four-game stretch in Traverse City. Who better to learn from than a former first-round pick who himself had to grind through some slow starts in the big leagues, a few months down in the minors, before turning himself into an everyday NHL player — and staying there for 16 years?
Few have a better understanding than Malhotra of the need to push, grow and adapt to finally find a way into that coveted life out on the ice, under the lights. And the key to unlocking the next step, in Malhotra’s view, is about more than just stacking games with highlights.
“Obviously everyone coming into camp has the ability to play hockey really well,” the coach said with a laugh. “So I think the biggest thing to be a professional would be consistency. Just maintaining that level of professionalism, the highest level of performance, on a daily basis and not having those valleys and peaks in the way you play on, number one.
“Number two would just be understanding the game — applying systems, being positionally in the right place at the right time and making the plays that you’re expected to make.”
Robertson will get another chance to prove he can bring that consistency, that awareness at the pro level, starting Thursday, when Toronto’s prospects will meet the Dallas Stars’ young guns. Matchups against prospects from St. Louis Blues, Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings will follow before the 21-year-old can move on to Toronto’s main camp and into the pre-season.
Whether this month-long stretch ends with Robertson still in a Maple Leafs jersey or another trip back to the AHL, he’s keeping his focus solely on the process.
“I think for me it’s just doing what I can and just playing the way I can,” he said of the road ahead. “I know I’m confident in myself, that I’m that caliber of player.”
Maple Leafs assistant general manager Ryan Hardy, who oversees the Traverse City squad, tends to agree.
“If you look at last season in particular, he played 28 games in the American League and scored 16 goals,” Hardy said of the organization’s young sniper. “That’s a 40-goal clip, for a kid who just turned [21] the other day. It’s incredible. He’s extremely driven, he’s a young man who loves hockey, so I think he’s pretty much knocking on the doorstep.”
And then it comes down to another prospect tournament, another training camp, another pre-season. Another chance for Robertson to show the Maple Leafs brass that he is the player he thinks he is — and the player they think he is, too.
“You know, every year I’d say, ‘This is my year.’ Every year I try to make the team. Even when I was drafted three years ago, I wanted to make the team,” Robertson said. “My goal is obviously not going back to the american league my goal is to play in the nhl like it is every year nothing has changed so as far as the chances of making the team its up to [Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe].
“But for me, I have to put myself in the best position to do it.”
[ad_2]
Leave a Reply