Is Matthews Knies on his way out of Toronto?
New Toronto Maple Leafs general manager John Chayka has wasted no time putting his stamp on his new team, moving goalie Joseph Woll out to land a quality draft pick and defenseman Emil Andrae.
Chayka continued to re-shape the blue line this week, as he acquired the rights to breakout 20-goal defenseman Darren Raddysh from the Tampa Bay Lightning before signing him to an eight-year contract extension.
One name that has been in the rumor mill is that of star winger Matthew Knies, who was reportedly nearly traded by Brad Treliving at last season’s deadline, and his name continues to pop up now that Chayka is in the big chair.
Chayka poured some cold water on the notion on Friday, calling a move that sends Knies out of town “not probable,” while also not ruling it out entirely.
Maple Leafs GM John Chayka says he's going to evaluate everything when it comes to trade speculation, but says it's 'not probable' when it comes to trading a young, core player such as Matthew Knies.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed whether or not the Leafs will actually go through with moving one of their best young assets.
Tyler Yaremchuk: We’ve got a few #AskDFOs to get to. One from Randy, who wants to know: is Matthew Knies gone in Toronto? I’ll be honest, Hutts, I don’t understand this one. Like, I don’t know why the Leafs are jonesing to trade him. I understand there was a bit of a theory floating around that, hey, next year, if your top power play unit is McKenna, Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, and Radish, could we see some production fall off from Matthew Knies? But even if you take his power play goals out of the equation, 17 goals last year, 24 goals the year before that, 15 the year before that, he’s a 23-year-old who’s going to get you 15-plus five-on-five goals a year, kill some penalties. I don’t know what the rush is to get rid of this kid.
Carter Hutton: No, it doesn’t make any sense to me. And especially when we’ve sat and we’ve watched Toronto stumble in the playoffs in the Atlantic Division against the big, strong Florida Panthers. Or like, now you’re looking at a Carolina Hurricanes team who plays a similar– like, you want the size and strength of what Matthew Knies brings to the table. So he’s a factor for me. I think trading him is crazy, in my opinion. I’m banging my desk. Sorry, I’m all excited here… Why would you try to trade Matthew Knies? Well, games are getting softer. And that’s a guy that plays… He’s a nail gun. You don’t trade Matthew Knies. That’s a dumb move, you know?
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…