Here's some reasons why I love Nicky....
- Over the last 3 years (min 80gp), he's 28th in the league in 5v5 G/60, with a 12.9% shooting percentage. Ahead of Hintz, Jack Hughes, Knies, Ehlers, Vilardi, Kaprizov, Rantanen, Connor fucking McDavid. Without playing with top 6 linemates.
For the eye testers...54% of the goals scored while he was on the ice over those 3 seasons went into the right net. Higher than gud pros Pacioretty & Laughton, higher than safe no event specialists like Kerfoot, etc...so whatever you think you're seeing happen on the ice because Nic Robertson is small, soft and bad defensively is mostly a figment of your imagination or at minimum, what he does to help put the puck in the other net outweighs it fairly significantly.
- He draws penalties at the same rate Willy does and overall provides a 2-1 penalties drawn to taken advantage.
- For all of the talk of his turnover problem, his takeaway/giveaway ratio is neutral. Mitch, Tavares, Knies, Domi, McMann, Laughton all negative to heavily negative
- Blocks shots at a higher rate than the gritty Bertuzzi, Knies, McMann, Domi, ROR & Bunting. Also higher than Tavares, Nylander, Jarnkrok, Kampf, Pacioretty, & Kerfoot. 5x the rate that Engvall blocked as a Leaf. Fucking hits more than Bertuzzi, Holmberg, Jarnkrok, Matthews, Engvall, Kerfoot, 2x Marner, Domi, ROR & Nylander.
Just give him a fucking opportunity and stop holding him to a special set of standards that no one else in the organization seems to get held to.