The Toronto Maple Leafs are getting down to business for the offseason. New general manager John Chayka already put his first stamp on his tenure by firing head coach Craig Berube on Wednesday morning, and now we're getting some trade rumours already underway.
It's the NHL offseason in Toronto.
Insider Chris Johnston appeared on Wednesday's OverDrive show and gave something big for Leafs Nation to chew on.
Matthew Knies' trade value revealed in latest report
While in a conversation about how exactly the name of Leafs winger Matthew Knies is starting to come up in trade talk, since he is a 23-year-old forward who is signed to a sweetheart of a contract, Johnston was very forthright with the realities of the entire roster and necessity to make a deal.
"I had someone say to me who works for an NHL team, if we were trading right now, we'd give up more for Matthew Knies than for Auston Matthews." 🤯@reporterchris on Knies' high trade value around the league #LeafsForever https://t.co/xgkULBfEZv pic.twitter.com/zmwQxerWCo
— OverDrive (@OverDrive1050) May 13, 2026
"I think it's as simple as most of the other pieces that they will consider trading, have no-movement clauses," Johnston said. "If you are ever going to, say, trade a William Nylander and make a big trade, he can limit where he goes and even say 'I'm going nowhere'. ... The key thing with Matthew [Knies] is that he's an attractive asset, he's signed for several years into the future, and they can trade him to any one of the 31 clubs. Meaning, that can really conduct an auction for him."
That makes a whole lot of sense. As we've seen in other deals around the league, any player that has complete control of their destination because of a clause in their contract, does not typically return fair value. Sure, Nylander should be getting a team-changing level of assets back but if he determines that he wants to only go to the Rangers and no other team, then it severely limits the Leafs' negotiating power.
Lots of factors go into Knies' trade value
And that is evident when it comes to all the trade conversations around Knies. Factoring in his age and contract, the actual value of a player like Knies is shocking.
"I actually had someone say to me this week, who works for an NHL team, that I won't name, that 'If we were trading right now, we would give up more for Matthew Knies than we would for Auston Matthews'," Johnston said.
"And it's nothing to do with the gap in what the teams are, but with Matthews, we would know if he would want to come to us -- he would not be going anywhere else so we wouldn't be under the same pressure. And he's only got two years left on his contract and we don't know what that's going to cost. He was just saying that the value you know for sure, that you got five or six more years of Knies in his prime and already signed and it would probably force him to give up more in that trade than for Matthews."
It's surprising on its face. But as Johnston said, considering that the team is looking at potentially getting a 30-goal scorer that can be a physical force, for five more years at a manageable dollar figure, as Knies is signed through the 2030-31 season at just a $7.75-million AAV, the value of that can be immense.
And apparently there was a deal on the table that was large at the trade deadline.
"The discussions I know they had at the deadline -- one team I know put six pieces, I believe, into an offer for Knies. And obviously it wasn't good enough to meet what the Leafs needed to pull the trigger. But they got a lot of teams' attention by being willing to listen on him and obviously they didn't make that team," Johnston said.
"But, it's a brand new front office. Maybe some of the pressures are a little bit different now that they have the first-overall pick. I'm not sitting here saying they're definitely going to shop him again but it's happened before and you can't rule it out as a possibility."
That was Treliving, now it's Chayka. Especially considering the uncertainty surrounding Auston Matthews' future, trading away a 23-year-old seems counterintuative for the future of this team. With the first-overall pick, Knies could be who would insulate the forward lineup and help ease Gavin McKenna (if that is the pick) into the NHL by being the other left-winger in the top six.
But on the other hand, maybe getting McKenna can be the easy Knies replacement in the top six and you solve several other problems around the roster in what you get back for the 23-year-old. It'll be a tough decision no matter what.
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