Matthew Knies got a straight answer this week. Maple Leafs GM John Chayka killed the trade rumours for good at training camp media day.
The speculation followed Knies for over a year, from trade deadline whispers with Montreal to summer chatter tied to Zach Werenski.
Chayka wasn't vague about it. "I think you'd be really hard-pressed to do better than Matthew Knies," he told Sportsnet days after taking the job.
Knies backed it up on the ice. He piled up 23 goals and 43 assists for 66 points last season, a near point-per-game rate for a 23-year-old power forward.
Knies didn't hide from it either. "I try not to look into it too much, but I'm not blind to it," he said, admitting friends kept sending him the rumours.
He signed away the noise last summer anyway, locking in a six-year extension worth $7.75 million annually before the salary cap even climbed.
Would the Leafs really have flipped a homegrown power forward to their fiercest rival for futures? Chayka clearly never thought that math made sense.
Werenski chase shows what it would actually take to trade Knies
Chayka repeated that stance a month later when reporters pressed him again. "The idea we're going to improve the roster by moving a top young player, I guess it's not probable," he said.
The only real test came when Columbus dangled Zach Werenski, the reigning Norris winner. Even then, the asking price reportedly blew past Knies alone.
Trading a 23-year-old who wants to be here, for draft picks and projects, would've been a bad process. The Leafs were right to pass twice.
It's the hockey version of turning down a guaranteed contract to chase a lottery ticket. Toronto already had the safer bet on its roster.
The front office didn't sit on its hands this summer either. Toronto added Gavin McKenna through the draft lottery and signed Darren Raddysh and Sergei Bobrovsky.
Toronto finished 28th overall a year ago, a -46 goal differential nobody in that room wants to repeat. Knies now carries part of that weight into camp.
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Should the Maple Leafs have at least listened on Matthew Knies for Zach Werenski?
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