Toronto's Nicholas Robertson, Los Angeles' Alex Turcotte and Carolina's Ryan Suzuki haven't the best start to their pro careers, but Jacob Stoller explains why a fresh start may be best for them.

Opportunity usually serves as the launching pad for most prospects' success.

It’s not just about ice time. It’s also about their fit into the team's system. It's the organization's philosophy with development and, often, depth chart circumstances factor into how much runway a prospect has to become an everyday NHL player.

But you rarely see teams cut bait on high draft picks prematurely.

Given how much NHL organizations invest in scouting — and how integral it is to get productive players on an entry-level deal in a flat cap climate — it can be hard for a team to move on from a once highly-touted prospect.

But, from a player's lens, sometimes a change of scenery could be integral to a player reaching their full potential. Let alone progressing at all.

In this two-part series, we will look at three forwards and three defensemen prospects — who played in the AHL this past season — that could benefit from a change of scenery. 

Nicholas Robertson, Toronto Maple Leafs

On the surface, there’s so much to love about Nick Robertson’s game.

The 21-year-old has an NHL-ready wrist shot, can make plays at top speed, and displays an element of tenacity and fearlessness that’s seldom found in 5-foot-9 forwards.

But Robertson has struggled to stay healthy, with injuries to his knee, fibula and shoulder limiting him to just 82 games over the last three seasons — 31 in the NHL and 51 in the AHL.

Elliotte Friedman suggested on the 32 Thoughts Podcast that Robertson “could use a fresh start and will probably like one.”

Before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury on Dec. 8., Robertson dressed in just 15 of the Leafs’ previous 25 games. He struggled to score, going 14 games without a goal after scoring two goals in his season debut.

It was odd seeing Robertson remain with the team instead of being re-assigned to the Marlies during his slump. Philosophically, the Leafs have never been ones to fast-track a player to the NHL. If anything, they usually overripen prospects as they did with Kasperi Kapanen back in 2017-18.

One league source close to the situation told The Hockey News that Robertson’s camp — led by agent Pat Brisson — was quite vocal to then-GM Kyle Dubas about Robertson being unhappy with the prospect of being sent to the AHL. It is believed this was a contributing factor in Robertson remaining in the NHL last fall, even when he wasn't a lineup regular.

Statistically speaking, the argument that Robertson — a point-per-game player through 28 AHL games during the 2021-22 season — had nothing left to prove at the AHL level isn’t ludicrous. 

Robertson recorded 0.71 even-strength points per game that season, the sixth most of any AHL U-23 player that played a minimum of 15 games between 2012 to 2022, according to pick224.com (This does not include the shortened 2020-21 pandemic season). 

For what it’s worth, the average amount of NHL games played the following year for players in that top 20 is 61.2.

On the flip side, there’s no denying that Robertson has yet to cement himself as an NHL regular.

“Nail Yakupov had a weapon of a shot in junior. But when he got to the NHL, and his shot wasn’t as (effective), he didn’t know how to move off the puck and be dangerous,” one NHL scout told The Hockey News. “The same thing happened with Jesse Puljujarvi. And I see some similarities there with Robertson.”

Robertson also tends to dodge the defensive zone.

“He should want the puck as badly in his own zone as he does in offensive spots, and he should work just as hard to win it back,” said a different NHL front office member who had several live viewings of Robertson last season.

If the Leafs don’t foresee Robertson cracking their top nine in the fall, perhaps they flip him elsewhere as part of a larger deal.

Alex Turcotte, Los Angeles Kings

Things have really gone south for Alex Turcotte over the last two years.

For starters, the fifth overall selection at the 2019 draft has unfortunately been bogged down by concussions, limiting him to just 71 games played over the last two seasons — 59 in the AHL and 12 in the NHL. The constant stopping and starting have derailed Turcotte’s trajectory, with his AHL production declining to a subpar level for a top-five pick.

The odds of him ever living up to his original draft position are slim.

Plus, there’s really little room for him in Los Angeles, with the Kings having Anze Kopitar, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Phil Danault down the middle. Quinton Byfield is a natural center, too.

But that doesn’t mean Turcotte (58th in THN’s Future Watch) can’t become a very useful top-nine piece, assuming he can stay healthy.

“His vision. His hands. His passing ability. It’s NHL level; there’s no other way to put it,” said one player who saw Turcotte several times in the Pacific Division during the 2021-22 season. “It’s leaps and bounds better than what you usually see in the American League.”

Granted, those raw skills alone aren’t going to be what gets Turcotte into the NHL. He’s got NHL-ready tools, though they aren’t dynamic like his former USA Hockey National Development program teammates that were drafted after him — Matthew Boldy, Cole Caufield and Trevor Zegras. 

In AHL Ontario, Turcotte sometimes has tried to do too much, but he plays an honest, 200-foot game. Offensively, he’s at his best when he’s leveraging his stick skills to be a puck hound, being the first in on the forecheck and winning 1-on-1 battles to maintain possession and, ultimately, set his teammates up in prime scoring positions. Defensively, he can key in on opposing teams’ best players.

“They didn’t draft him to be like Trevor Zegras. They drafted him to shut down guys like Zegras,” said one AHL player who has seen Turcotte play several times over the last three years. “He’s skilled enough where he’s able to contribute, but I don’t think he’s ever going to put up elite offensive numbers. He’s at his best when he’s playing more of a solid, two-way game.”

A change of scenery may be what’s best for Turcotte. It could help light a fire under his bottom and perhaps be the first building block in his re-inventing his game. 

Keep in mind he’s still only 22. Casey Mittelstadt — a player with a similar background — didn’t break out until this past season when he recorded a career-high 59 points as a 24-year-old. While it’d be surprising to see Turcotte put up similar numbers in two years, it wouldn’t be shocking to see him become a middle-six center.

But for any of that to come to fruition, he needs a reset.

Ryan Suzuki, Carolina Hurricanes

It’d be wise for the Carolina Hurricanes to move on from their 2019 first-round pick this summer.

With Carolina entering the 2023-24 season without an AHL affiliate, Ryan Suzuki — and other Hurricanes prospects in North America — are kind of in limbo.

Suzuki’s first three pro seasons haven’t gone great, either. He turned pro prematurely during the 2020-21 COVID-19 season, recording 10 points in 26 AHL contests while playing in a bottom-six role. He was deployed in a similar role during his sophomore season — 14 points in 34 games — but an injury sidelined him for the entirety of the Chicago Wolves’ 2021-22 Calder Cup run. 

This past season saw some improvement from Suzuki, with 32 points in 50 games while playing in a first-line role. But as it stands right now, his game is far away from where it needs to be to become an NHL player.

“This year, I thought he competed much harder, and that allowed his skill to be more effective and impactful,” one former AHL coach told The Hockey News via text. “Although, I still think he played on the outside at 5-on-5.”

The consensus seems to be that Suzuki, as of right now, is viewed as a flawed skilled player who plays a game style that you can’t win with at the pro level. He likes to slow things down, hang onto the puck and operate from the perimeter.

“He has skill, but if you’re a small player or a pure skill player, you have to be exceptional to be an NHLer; not just really good…exceptional,” said one member of an Eastern Conference front office in a text. “Size doesn’t matter — (the) ability to play in the middle of the ice matters.”

Stylistically speaking, it’s hard to envision Suzuki ever fitting into coach Rod Brind'Amour’s system in Carolina. Or any team, for that matter.

There’s still room for growth, though. But it’s going to take time. Perhaps an organization with a high-end development program like the Toronto Maple Leafs or Montreal Canadiens, or a rebuilding organization like the Chicago Blackhawks or Arizona Coyotes, takes a swing at Suzuki.