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Remember Robertson scoring at will in the Maple Leafs’ pre-season, after signing a one-year contract? Those five goals in the exhibition season were evidence to some that he had successfully bet on himself, as well as undeniable proof he was a bona fide NHL scorer.

Except NHL exhibitions aren’t the same as NHL regular-season games, are they? Hockey history is filled with players who shone in the pre-season but couldn’t do the same in the regular season.

Remember speedy Paul Lawless? He lit it up for the Leafs in the 1989 exhibition season. But after going goalless in six regular season games, he ended up not just leaving the Leafs but heading to Switzerland. He never returned to the NHL.

So here we are five games into the 2024-25 regular season, and Robertson hasn’t scored a goal. He doesn’t have a point. He has a total of seven shots while playing between 10 and 14 minutes a game.

So, one more time: Can we agree the NHL pre-season proves nothing?

All that aside, this remains the talented Robertson’s best chance to prove himself. He hasn’t played himself out of a job just yet. A new head coach, Craig Berube, is still watching closely, hoping against hope the young winger represents the secondary scoring this team needs.

But Robertson isn’t delivering. Most recently, handed a prime scoring chance on Saturday night against the Rangers with the puck in the slot, Robertson whiffed.

He still may score some goals this season, just as Marc Savard’s struggling power play may yet work despite an anemic start. But if this early season doughnut stretches on, Robertson won’t be able to complain he’s not being given a reasonable opportunity, as seemed to be the case when he demanded a trade in the summer.

Interestingly, Max Pacioretty has scored, but the veteran left winger sat in the press box the past two games while Robertson played. That was almost as interesting a decision by Berube as giving Ryan Reaves multiple shifts in the final nine minutes of Toronto’s loss to the Rangers on Saturday night while it was still a one-goal game.

In general, the Leafs have enjoyed a solid start to the season. They’re 3-2, and could be 5-0 if not for being stoned by enemy goalies twice, first by Montreal’s Sam Montembeault on opening night, and then by New York’s Igor Shesterkin on Saturday night.

This week gets more interesting with four games, three at home. The Leafs host Tampa on Monday, St. Louis (Berube’s former team) on Thursday and Boston on Saturday. pc28¹ÙÍøalso visits Columbus on Tuesday.

Clearly, Robertson needs to start scoring. If he’s not finding the net, it’s going to be hard to make a case to keep him in the lineup, and more difficult to imagine him as part of the team’s future. With Fraser Minten hurt for all of training camp and Easton Cowan sent back to junior, Robertson and Matthew Knies are the only under-25 young forwards in the pc28¹ÙÍølineup at the moment.

Knies isn’t lighting it up yet either despite playing a regular shift beside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, although he has received words of praise from Berube and plays a different game than Robertson.

Still, would it be fair to give Robertson a shot alongside Matthews? GM Brad Treliving will want to make sure he knows exactly what he has in Robertson before any decision is made to move the youngster elsewhere. The Carter Verhaeghe example tells you all you need to know about the dangers of trading young prospects before they bloom.

Pacioretty, of course, is the other variable on the left side among the top three lines. He might not be an everyday player anymore and may not have the speed and shot he once had. But he is a bigger body who isn’t reluctant to head to the net, and that was an element the Leafs certainly could have used Saturday night.

We know the bulk of the Leafs offence is going to come from Matthews, Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares. Treliving didn’t aggressively address the lack of bottom-six scoring in the off-season. He strengthened the blue line instead by spending millions on Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Pacioretty was always a long shot to bounce back to the level he once enjoyed. Robertson, on the other hand, was ideally the cap-friendly forward already in the organization who could add needed depth to the pc28¹ÙÍøattack.

If he can’t do it, sometime between now and the trade deadline Leafs management will have to find someone who can.