With about a month of hockey into the books, the Toronto Maple Leafs have shown just moderate success so far in their 2024-25 NHL season.
After a promising start to the year with four wins in their first six games, the Toronto Maple Leafs have somehow reverted to some of their bad habits. Together with a power play that is becoming practically non-existent with each passing day, their record has now fallen to just 6-5-1.
The Maple Leafs main stars have been doing their job as usual, although some more than others. However, they wouldn’t even be where they are at this moment which isn't even very far, without their goalies.
Here, we will take a look at five of the biggest surprises thus far from the Leafs first month of the season.
5 biggest surprises from the Toronto Maple Leafs first month of the season
Matthew Knies
Following a solid rookie year in 2023-24 in which he put up 15 goals and 20 assists for 35 points in 80 games, Matthew Knies was hoping to build upon that success in his sophomore season.
So far, Knies has shocked everyone by becoming a scoring machine coming out of the gate in 2024-25. With 6 goals and 7 points in total already in just his first 12 games of the season, he is actually on pace for a whopping 41 goals on the year.
Of course playing alongside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner certainly helps. But no Leafs player to date has even recorded more than 25 goals when playing on the same line with the dynamic duo (although Michasel Bunting put up two of the best 5v5 seasons of the last 20 years playing with them).
As a result, Knies could be well on his way to smash that mark if he can keep this pace up the entire year. In doing so, it also makes the Leafs top line that much more lethal now with the sudden secret weapon in the scoring prowess of Knies. The only downfall is the fact that if Knies ends up having a career year, he will likely be that much tougher to re-sign down the road.