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Toronto Maple Leafs Top 10 Prospects at the Start of the 2021-22 Season

By James Tanner

TORONTO, ON - APRIL 13: Nick Robertson #89 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates against the Calgary Flames during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on April 13, 2021 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Flames defeated the Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - APRIL 13: Nick Robertson #89 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates against the Calgary Flames during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on April 13, 2021 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Flames defeated the Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /
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Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs used their second round pick to select Tri-City Storm forward Matthew Knies (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

6. Matthews Knies

Age: 18

Height/Weight: 6’3 210 lbs.

Position: Left Wing

Shoots: Left

Draft: 2nd Round, 57th Overall 2021

Knies is just 18 and he’s absolutely huge. He was selected in the second round from the USHL, where he scored 42 points in 44 games.

Going into last season, expectations for Knies were that he would be a first round pick.  Instead, he got Covid and had a terrible start to his season.  While he finished strong, it was enough to knock him out of the first round, and get people saying that he failed to build on his strong rookie season in the USHL.

Their loss is the Leafs gain.  Clearly recovering from Covid is difficult and if you combine those circumstances with his strong finish, it seems quite obvious that the Leafs got a bonus first round pick here.  A late one, but still.

This year he is playing Big Ten games for the University of Minnesota, and while he’s taking a circuitous path to the NHL, he will likely get there eventually.

Like every player the Leafs draft, Knies is highly talented, but unlike most of them, he also has size.  He is said to be a strong skater for a player of his age and size, and the Leafs could be getting the quality power-forward that their roster has lacked for years.

Of course, star level power forwards are probably the rarest of NHL players, so we’ll see. That potential alone is enough to rank him sixth.

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