Nick Robertson gets ripped apart for injuring William Nylander, leads to trade talk

The collective breath of the Maple Leafs’ fanbase was held in Toronto on Thursday night after star forward William Nylander exited the preseason game against the Montreal Canadiens due to a head injury. He did not return to the contest for what the team called precautionary reasons, though it was clear that Nylander was unwell after falling and hitting his head on Habs’ Christian Dvorak’s knee.

The sad, and almost ridiculous thing, is that there is only one person to blame for the injury in Toronto. Nylander was back-checking on the play when teammate Nick Robertson attempted pushed him with his stick into the zone, which knocked him off balance. Nylander remained down initially before leaving the ice under his own power and heading straight to the dressing room.

During the intermission following the play, Nick Kypreos criticized the play and ripped Robertson apart for his decision to shove his teammate, calling it “bush league.” He called the play dumb and lazy by Robertson, who has already been feeling the heat in Toronto.

Earlier this month, Robertson was resigned a one year deal worth $875,000, though that did not shut down all the trade rumours surrounding him. During the summer, Leafs GM Brad Treliving scoured the market for a trade but was unable to find anything worthwhile in exchange for Robertson. Upon resigning him, Treliving explained how Robertson would need to “earn his stripes.”

On the play in which Robertson injured Nylander, some say that it was the latter’s lack of speed on the backcheck led to the shove and the play just went wrong. Robertson went on to score the game-winning goal in a 2-1 victory for the Leafs over the Canadiens.

The Leafs’ announcement stating precautionary reasons could perhaps mean Nylander avoided a worse-case scenario.
What about Robertson and his future in Toronto though…