Why Matthew Knies deserves a shot on Leafs' top line next season

When the Toronto Maple Leafs take to the ice next season, plenty of thoughts will fly around about what’s changed about the team’s forward makeup.

Losing the trade deadline additions of Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari, as well as team staple bottom-six centre Alex Kerfoot, Toronto will be icing a largely familiar roster but one that’s still noticeably different from the squad that closed out the 2023 postseason.

Most notably, the influx of Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, and Ryan Reaves signals three veteran players known for having a little “edge” in their game, with head coach Sheldon Keefe now tasked with fitting in the three hard-nosed players into Toronto’s lineup.

But for all the talk of the new guys in town, 20-year-old forward Matthew Knies is perhaps the most intriguing Leafs player to watch next season.

Knies is just 10 games into his professional hockey career — three regular season games and 10 playoff contests — but he’s already shown his ability to be an impact player, putting up five points in just 131 minutes in his NHL career so far.

Assuming Knies is good to go after a brutal concussion cut his postseason run with Toronto short, Keefe should consider giving him a long look to start the season on the team’s top forward unit.

Projected competitors

Hazarding an educated guess, we’ll likely see Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews on line one, and John Tavares and William Nylander on line two.

Marner and Nylander could conceivably swap roles, but either way, it’s all but a guarantee — barring an unforeseen blockbuster trade  —  that four of the Leafs’ top-six forward roles will be occupied by their four highest-paid forwards.

That leaves two spots — likely on the left wing — for players to fight for a spot in the team’s top-six forward group.

Currently, Toronto has six other wingers outside of Knies with a shot of cracking the lineup:

• Tyler Bertuzzi
• Max Domi
• Ryan Reaves
• Calle Jarnkrok
• Sam Lafferty
• Nick Robertson

Reaves and Lafferty have spent the majority of their careers as low-scoring, fourth-line players, so they’re essentially out of the conversation already. Essentially, it’s a battle between five players for two top-six roles, with Knies right in the middle of that training camp competition.

So why should the Leafs put Knies on line one?

There’s just something a little different about seeing your name next to a former league MVP in the league’s biggest market.

Skating alongside a player like Matthews (and either Marner or Nylander) carries a bit of extra exposure than playing on the team’s second line, and conceivably, raises a player’s expected offensive output.

We’ve seen players like Michael Bunting and Zach Hyman rise from relatively unknown to legitimate top-line talents while in Toronto, and it all started with a coach giving the player a shot.

Knies comes in much younger than Bunting (aged 25) or Hyman (aged 24) were in their first full NHL season, with a higher prospect pedigree or draft position than either player.

But it’s still a similar enough case in the sense that Toronto would be complementing two highly paid stars with a much cheaper option, and hoping to replicate the high-scoring results both Bunting and Hyman were able to contribute during their time in Toronto.

If putting Knies on the team’s top line doesn’t work, no harm, no foul — the Leafs should have enough talent to comfortably not worry too much about their positional standings next season. If Knies is better suited in a bottom-six role, the Leafs have 82 games to figure that out.

But suppose Knies clicks with Toronto’s heavy hitters. In that case, it’d allow players like Bertuzzi and Domi — those with much more NHL experience  — to help bring some much-needed balance throughout the rest of Toronto’s lineup, and perhaps start the newest signature top line for the Leafs.

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