The Pittsburgh Penguins just added some forward depth. And it comes with a familiar face — at least for Penguins GM Kyle Dubas.
Nick Robertson is headed to Pittsburgh. The Maple Leafs sent him there for a fourth-round pick, according to Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. Robertson is a restricted free agent, so the Penguins will need to get a deal done with him before July 1 or risk losing him to an offer sheet. But this move is clearly about adding offensive options for a team trying to stay competitive in a tough Metropolitan Division.
The Dubas connection
This isn’t just any trade. Dubas was the GM in Toronto when Robertson was drafted 53rd overall in 2019. So Dubas knows the player. He knows the family too — Nick is the younger brother of Dallas Stars star Jason Robertson. The Penguins are betting Dubas’s familiarity pays off.
Robertson had his best season in 2023-24. In 78 games he put up 16 goals and 16 assists. That’s 32 points, all career highs. He also played meaningful minutes for the Leafs in the 2019-20 postseason, scoring a goal in four games. The kid can score. The question is whether he can do it consistently in a top-nine role.
Robertson has been bouncing between one-year deals the last two years. He played last season on a $875,000 contract, and the season before that he got a raise to $1.825 million. According to AFP Analytics, his next deal could land around $3 million AAV. That’s a decent chunk for a guy who hasn’t cracked 35 points yet, but the Penguins seem to think the upside is there.
The Penguins aren’t done, by the way. Free agency opens July 1 at noon ET, and they still have cap space to play with. But this move is a solid start. Robertson gives them some youth and skill on the wing, something they’ve been lacking as the core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang gets older.
It’s also worth noting this is the second RFA trade of the day. Earlier, the Dallas Stars sent a pending RFA to the Nashville Predators. That player was not Jason Robertson. So the Robertson name is making the rounds, just not the one everyone expected.
Robertson’s AHL time is behind him now. He played parts of three seasons bouncing between the minors and Toronto before sticking full-time last year. He’s 22 years old, he’s shown he can produce at the NHL level, and now he lands in a situation where he might get more ice time and a clearer path to the top six. That could be good for him and good for the Penguins.
We’ll see how his next contract shakes out. But for now, Pittsburgh got a young forward with some scoring touch for a fourth-round pick. Not bad for a team that needed an injection of energy up front.
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