The Toronto Maple Leafs made the smart play by avoiding an arbitration hearing with forward Nick Robertson on Saturday. As the two sides approached Sunday’s scheduled hearing, Robertson and the Maple Leafs agreed to a one-year, $1.825 million contract. It was necessary to avoid the drama that has come with hearings like this in the past, and with a player in Robertson who already had trust issues with the organization.
Avoiding an unnecessary hearing potentially means not damaging what might already be a fragile player who already has a complicated relationship with Leafs’ management.
Arbitration Hearings Are Rarely Ever a Good Thing
Arbitration hearings are rarely positive experiences. This is especially true for young players still trying to find their place. For Robertson, who has previously requested a trade and has struggled to secure a consistent role in the Leafs’ lineup, the hearing could have been especially toxic.
The process requires teams to argue against a player’s value, often pointing to their weaknesses and inconsistencies. Players who have gone through this process before have publicly talked about how devastating it is. Some never get over it. For the Leafs, that’s a risky path to take with a 23-year-old still hoping to break out and land a consistent top-nine role.
Toronto may have spent a bit more than they’d have ideally liked, but the two sides ultimately found a middle ground between its $1.2 million offer and Robertson’s $2.25 million ask. That keeps the cap hit manageable and the forward’s confidence intact.
The Maple Leafs Now Have Options
The Leafs not only protected their cap space (they have about $1.9 million remaining) but also avoided straining relations with a player they may need to step up, especially after losing Mitch Marner to free agency. If it doesn’t pan out, Robertson is still tradeable.
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He scored 15 goals in 69 games last season. That’s not peanuts with the cloud of a trade or an uncertain future hanging over him. He has shown flashes of potential, and there may be a team out there happy to take a flyer on him if the Leafs decide to move on. With Marner gone and several new faces in the mix, the Leafs need internal options to rise—Robertson among them. If he’s not, GM Brad Treliving can pivot, targeting another player in the same price range.
Robertson Will Start the Season Confident
A one-year term under $2 million is highly tradable in a rising cap environment, especially for teams seeking affordable scoring depth. He remains a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at the end of the deal. That means he’s still under team control, which is a plus for any team that trades for him.
In recent years, we’ve seen arbitration fallout derail careers. Ilya Samsonov’s case in 2023 left him shaken, led to a waiver stint, and ultimately a free-agent exit. As of now, he’s still a UFA available on the market this summer, and few, if any teams seem interested. It’s been an intriguing fall that the Leafs should have learned from. This team couldn’t afford a similar situation with Robertson—especially not now.
By resolving things early, Toronto avoided unnecessary drama, kept his value in a trade, and gave Robertson the chance to prove he belongs. There were so many worse ways this could have gone.
