From kristen_shilton: Keefe pondering Robertson's role with Leafs. MORE:
“I think what you can read into [the situation] is we continue to believe in him,” Keefe told reporters on a Zoom call from the NHL’s Eastern Conference Hub at the Royal York Hotel on Wednesday. “And he hasn't had any lapses here that have made us second-guess giving him that opportunity. We haven’t made any decisions. [But] we continue to believe in him and believe there's reason to continue to give him reps in [a top-nine] spot.
“Playing in junior, you never know what your calibre is as an 18-year-old,” Robertson said. “Especially going through those [training camp] practices and these scrimmages and the exhibition game last night, it just proves to myself that I can keep up with [NHL players]. I've got a lot to learn but I definitely made an impact [in the game] and I can learn a lot still and as time goes on, I'll definitely mature for sure.
Toronto only had the one tune-up on its calendar before Game 1 of its best-of-five series with Columbus rolls around on Sunday. But that brevity of schedule doesn’t necessarily put more pressure on Keefe to announce Robertson’s future; it just gives him more time to assess the teen’s preparedness for meaningful hockey.
“He's a very impressive young kid to step right into this situation,” said Kerfoot. “Obviously never having played at this level, having only a couple of weeks to practice, I think he's been outstanding. You can just see that whenever he's on the ice how good he is and how good he's going to be and he's a lot of fun to play with.”
So while Engvall and Gauthier had their minutes sliced to 4:56 and 7:30 respectively in Tuesday’s game, it wasn’t totally a reflection on where they stand with the coach.
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