Nick Robertson's long weekend is here, and he's got work to do. After a season of drama including even an alleged request for a trade, the restricted free agent now has to get down to business and either sign a contract with the Leafs or have an arbitration hearing on Sunday.

Robertson would become one of the rare players who file for binding salary arbitration that actually gets all the way to having the hearing with the arbitrator. I haven't seen anyone post definitive information about what time of day the hearing starts on Sunday.

This is even more remarkable given his hearing is among the last scheduled. The Leafs made their Qualifying Offer to Robertson one month ago on June 30, so the two sides have had an entire month to reach a deal of their own, but now, at the time of publishing this, there's only around 24 hours left to get that deal done before the arbitrator steps in and decides on the new contract for them, with only a one or two year term.

UPDATE: It's over

In the meantime there's nothing we can do but sit back and wait. Oh, and watch highlight clips of Leafs prospects!

Leafs prospect Victor Johansson (#9 in yellow) with a great full play for a goal. He retrieves the dump in, eludes the forecheckers and pushes the puck up the ice quickly and decisively. He gets the puck at the blueline off the rush, beats a defender and rips it through a screen. Great stuff to see.

— Acceptable Treliving (@brigstew.bsky.social) 2025-08-01T19:21:41.215Z

How did the Leafs do at this year's draft anyway? Here's the Scouch take.

Always watch for bears

Especially when you look like a sea monster the bear wants to kill and eat.

“Ice is gold, and they control the ice.”

A long expose on the Dallas Stars and youth hockey that is worth the time to read in full.

‘They control everything’: How the Dallas Stars monopolized Texas youth hockey
Ice is power in the lucrative world of youth hockey. In North Texas, the Dallas Stars hold almost all of it.
USA TODAY, USA TODAY
Lisa Bry expected a standard meet-and-greet when she visited the manager of the local ice rink. Instead, she says that a front-office executive for a $2 billion National Hockey League team threatened her.

Bry had just been elected president of Frisco Ice Hockey Association, a nonprofit hockey club for middle and high school students in Frisco, Texas. One of its board’s first actions under her leadership was to cancel the contracts of two coaches who had received dismal reviews from parent feedback surveys.

But at the April 2023 meeting, Bry said Dallas Stars executive Keith Andresen told her that the Stars, which ran the rink where the club practices, wanted those coaches to stay. 

His next words are seared in her memory: “Let me remind you where you get your ice from.”

In Dallas, the Stars spent decades turning what was once seen as a community good into a lucrative arm of their for-profit enterprise. 

By monopolizing the ice, the Stars effectively control the pathways by which young players advance to the sport's highest stages. Knowing most local hockey families have nowhere else to go, the Stars impose their will by reminding parents that they can block the pathway for any kid.

Enjoy your long weekend!

The next FTB will be on Tuesday, unless something very unexpected happens.

From The Branches