Matthew Knies
Age: 20
Height/Weight: 6’3″ 217LBS
Contract: $925,000 Cap Hit, expires after next season.
Draft: Second Round, 57th Overall, by the Toronto Maple Leafs
Acquired: Draft
Role: Scoring Line Power Forward. Leafs hoping he can replace at least some of the value they were getting from Michael Bunting for $900K.
Career Highs: Hobey Baker nomination in NCAA. Only has 3 career regular season games but does have 4 points in 7 career playoff games.
Last Year’s Scoring: 1Assist in 3 games
Last Year 5v5 Scoring/ Rate: 1.66 P/60 in the Regular Season, and 2.8 P/60 in the Playoffs.
On-Ice 5v5 Stats: Sample SIze is too small to worry about, however 59% Expected Goals in the regular season and 60% Expected Goals in the Playoffs is impressive.
Status: Power Forward with incredibly high ceiling, made that much better by who he figures to play with. NHL ready prospect.
Expectations: Knies is expected to bring energy to the Leafs top 6. Expect him to dig pucks out of corners and use his strength to win battles.
Notes: Matthew Knies has been a promising prospect for the Leafs and has developed more every year. Now taking the jump to a full-time NHL role, he will look to cling onto a job. I expect him to develop his defensive game as well and quickly adapt to the NHL game, limiting his defensive mistakes.