He would create the opportunity because he is a top line talent. Whereas Nick is barely an NHL talent…
You guys keep saying this... but with no actual argument to back it up.
Do you think any reasonable coach is going to put together a #1 powerplay unit comprised of 3 shooters up front?
Is a reasonable coach going to say, "yeah, let's take John Tavares, who's got an excellent set of hands around the net, and apt at screening goalies / deflecting pucks, off the powerplay so we can put a kid who's 5'8 170lbs in that spot"? I think not. That's some of the toughest ice in hockey.
Is a reasonable coach going to say "yeah, let's take Auston Matthews, the league's reigning rocket winner (by a wide margin), who happens to posess what is probably the league's best wrist shot, off the wing of the powerplay and put him where he's going to get hacked, so that we can develop a young guy?" I think not.
Is a reasonable coach going to say "yeah, let's take William Nylander, who also has a great distance shot, off the other wing to make room for this kid?" again, I think not.
We can go on as to why he'd be a piss poor replacement for Rielly or Marner at the top... but I think I've made my point.
Don't get me wrong, the Leafs PP is far from perfect and definitely too predictable... but Cole Caufield, Nick Robertson, adding one of those guys isn't the answer.
The way you're talking about Caufield it's like he's the 2nd coming of McDavid, that he's somehow instantly going to go from College and beat out, on a pure-merit basis, legitimate NHL stars in their mid 20s. That's just not realistic for any player but a special few.
It's one thing to do what Montreal did; as a bad team, give him a longer leash than a guy like Tyler Toffoli. You know you're not winning anything with Toffoli, so even if Caufield's maybe not quite as good, you give him the opportunity because you know that Caufield is important to the long term future of the club and Toffoli is just "there".
It's another to suggest that Toronto should deprioritize the use of their 23-25 year old star players, when they're trying to win a cup, so that they can develop Nick Robertson.
Let's not forget, Coel Caufield managed to be a -24 his rookie year, amongst the team-worst; and I'm assuming he got a fair bit of favourable matchups / ozone starts. You think Toronto would continue to give him all that ice time with being that poor defensively???