Matthew Knies to next Maple Leaf hockey boss: Don’t trade me

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Matthew Knies will have the same request no matter who becomes the next Maple Leafs general manager.

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Don’t trade me.

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The 23-year-old winger is finishing the first season of a six-year contract extension he signed last June, one that carries a team-friendly annual average value of $7.75 million US. Knies doesn’t have trade protection until 2030-31, the final year of the deal, when he can submit a 10-team no-trade list.

“I look at it that I committed to this team for six years and I hope that commitment stays vice versa,” Knies told the Toronto Sun after the Leafs’ morning skate on Monday, prior to the club’s final home game against the Dallas Stars. “It’s something out of my control. So if it happens, it’s understandable.

“But I want to be here. That’s how I look at it.”

What is Knies’ motivating factor?

A large part of the motivation for Knies will be trying to rebound, from a team perspective, after the huge disappointment that 2025-26 has been.

“I want to be a part of the season that we win in,” Knies said. “I want to be here, to be around these guys.

“There’s a lot of potential. I think that there is a championship-winning team here. I want to be part of it.”

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We don’t agree with that and few would. With the way the Leafs’ roster currently is constructed, the team is not close to a championship.

But we stick to our assertion, since Knies’ name surfaced in trade speculation at the deadline in March, that he has to be part of the solution going forward.

Young power forwards aren’t in abundance and consider that while Knies’ goal production dropped (he had 23 before Monday after scoring a career-high 29 last season), he has posted career-bests with 41 assists and 64 points.

Knies has played through a nagging knee injury and, while we can question his ongoing participation, if it was anything the Leafs thought would be a problem in the future, he would not be in the lineup.

Grinding through

“He’s been grinding this year with the injury,” Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “I have to give him credit, fighting through it, through the whole season. That’s not easy to do and it gets annoying more than anything, that he is feeling this way. But that’s the grind, and you’re not always going to feel great and you have to find a way to get through it. He has done that.”

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For Knies, the offensive production while playing through an injury doesn’t matter much. Not when weighed against the fact the Leafs’ season will end on Wednesday night in Ottawa against the Senators with no playoffs to follow.

“I think that there’s ways I could have done more, honestly, to help us get into a better position and into a playoff spot,” Knies said. “I never really look at it (from) an individual standpoint. I look at it as a team.

“We didn’t hit our our goals this year, and that’s the only way I’m going to look at this season.”

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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