As we near the trade deadline, there is one Toronto Maple Leaf whose name you’re going to be hearing a lot.
It’s not Auston Matthews, John Tavares, William Nylander or Mitch Marner, though. It’s not anyone on the current roster, and it’s not any of the big names on the trade board who are being connected to the Leafs in rumours ahead of the March 3 deadline.
Matthew Knies is going to be discussed much in these parts over the final few weeks before the trade deadline, because depending on what GM Kyle Dubas does, Knies is either the next Leafs prospect to get excited about, or he’ll be the main part of a trade that allows the Leafs to go big-game hunting.
A sophomore at the University of Minnesota, Knies decided to return to school this season to refine parts of his game and chase a national championship. Through 30 games, Knies has 17 goals and 31 points which has put him on the list of candidates for this year’s Hobey Baker Award, and the Golden Gophers have spent some time atop the national rankings, currently sitting No. 2 behind Quinnipiac.
So far, so good. But whenever his season ends, national title or not, the 20-year-old will have to make another decision on whether to sign with his NHL team, or go back to school for a third season. Does the 2021 second-rounder believe he’s NHL-ready at this point?
“That’s a tough question. I don’t know if anyone was ever as ready as Cale Makar was,” Knies told Nick Alberga and Jay Rosehill on Leafs Morning Take. “It’s a transition, it’s definitely a big step. I’m confident I can be an impactful player at this level, learn to dominate and move on. I think I’m there. I think there were parts of my game I wanted to work on this year when I was coming back, that I needed to mature, and grow into a leadership role as well. There’s things I needed to grow in this year. That’s the whole tale of why I needed one more year to come back. I definitely made those adjustments. I definitely got better as a player and person off the ice as well, so I’m definitely closer to making that step.”
The expectation from the outside is that Knies will leave college at the end of this season to start on his pro career, and if he’s still with the Leafs they could add him for their playoff run. Of course, Knies still has two years of college eligibility left, and so could yet return to school.
He says he has to keep his focus on one team for now, and that he’ll make a choice on his future at a later date.
“I’m not really sure what that decision is going to be until that time comes up where I have to sit down and say yes or no, but for now I’m confident I could be an effective player at the pro level. I just have to focus on myself here.”
For now, Knies is a Maple Leafs prospect who we may see don the Blue and White at some point in the later stages of the regular season, or possibly in the playoffs. He’ll be a 20-year-old rookie if he arrives this season, though, so expectations need to be tempered somewhat on what his immediate impact could be.
Still, Knies has grown as a player and prospect this season, and scout Jason Bukala has seen positive and excitable developments in the player. To hear Bukala describe Knies’ game, you can clearly identify the elements these Toronto Maple Leafs could use.
“I think we would all be in agreement that the Leafs need somebody who can go to the hard areas consistently not only to extend plays, but to score goals,” Bukala told Kyper and Bourne last week. “It’s an anomaly, I’ve never seen this I swear to goodness in 20 years I’ve never seen this before, 99 per cent of Knies’ offensive chances he’s generated this year have come between the hashmarks in the middle of the ice. So 99 per cent of his shots directed on goal have come from high danger or at least, I’m not talking a wide flank or from just inside the blue line, I’m talking about all the hard areas.
“If we can paint the 12×12 square in front of the net, all of his goals except one have been scored in that area. I think back to the glory days when we had a Dave Andreychuk in Toronto, everyone knew he was going to the net, there’s no question Andreychuk was going to the net, but he scored 50 goals from there and you couldn’t defend it.”
Dubas has said he’s not keen on trading a first-rounder or his top prospect in a deal for a rental player, and would be “hard-pressed” to trade either asset in any deal. But if the Leafs are going to add a top target who has some controllability in his contract, Dubas would have to consider it.
“But with regards to other options, I don’t think you say no off the hop to anything,” the Leafs GM said last week. “But those are very important pieces to us now and in the future.”
If he does suit up for the Leafs in the coming months, Knies, an Arizona native, would be excited to share the ice with a player he’s looked up to for years. But, while he says he’s seen a number of Maple Leafs games, he didn’t want to predict or assume where he might potentially fit into this lineup.
“I would step in there and dip my toe a little bit and see what it’s like there and then I could give you a better answer for who I’d accommodate, but playing with their top guys, obviously like Auston Matthews who I’ve looked up to, he’s been a huge influence to me. Just to share the ice with him would be unreal,” Knies said.
“I just want to step in there and be a player for them and someone who could contribute.”
We’ll see what the next few weeks bring for the Leafs, and how that impacts Knies’ future as a pro player. And then, some time later, we’ll find out if Knies is ready to make the jump to the NHL and just what he can offer out of the gate.
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