The Leafs forward has missed significant time from injury during the past few seasons, and now will miss even more.
Nick Robertson is going to miss some major time from the Maple Leafs to deal with rehabilitation from another major injury which he suffered in Thursday’s game.
Nick Roberston was down after this
man… pic.twitter.com/UoEMqZT9SZ
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 9, 2022
Sheldon Keefe reported today the medical team expects the winger to be out six for eight weeks, which puts his return somewhere around the end of January to the beginning of February—though the NHL All-Star game break plus some days off for the team has them not playing any games from February 2 through February 9, so his first game may not be until February 10.
Per Keefe, 6-8 weeks for Robertson. Will go rehab route rather than have surgery #Leafs
— Terry Koshan (@koshtorontosun) December 10, 2022
This is a yet another really unfortunate setback in playing time and development for Robertson, who simply can’t catch a break.
Robertson’s 2021 season on the Toronto Marlies started with him breaking his fibula in the second game of the season, an injury which left him out of play for over three months. That was on top of a major injury in a previous season where he was out weeks as well, and he missed the opportunity of many games because of shortened seasons due to the COVID pandemic.
Yet despite all this, he still made it all the way up to #5 on our Maple Leafs Top 25 Under 25 published in the summer, which is a testament to his resiliency and his perceived potential.
The 2019 draft pick has as of now made it into only 31 NHL games, but that’s not a bad result given his selection in the second round, as 16 of the 29 other players selected in that round have not yet played in even one NHL game, but Robertson has always had hype because when he does play he’s demonstrated some phenomenal raw talent, but if there’s one thing that destroys hype in the NHL, it’s a history of injuries.
To be frank, this sucks, and it’s really going to be a challenge physically and mentally for him to deal with all this happening yet again.
How the Leafs lines will be shuffled is up in the air as of the time of writing, but will be resolved soon as they play tonight, and Pierre Engvall will also be out as he was suspended by the NHL for this game. Joey Anderson has been recalled from the Marlies. We’ll have a game preview out later this morning.