A bombshell was just dropped. The Toronto Maple Leafs were moments away from finalizing a trade of Matthew Knies to the Montreal Canadiens at the deadline last season but due to complications, it fell through, according to the latest report.
In a report from Lenovo Center before Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, David Pagnotta mentioned that Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes said that there was something big on the table at the trade deadline and how he will revisit it this summer.
And boy, was it big.
"It was big. It was Matthew Knies," Pagnotta said. They had an agreement in place between the Leafs and the Habs that would have sent Matthew Knies to Montreal. Zharovsky was going the other way along with a prospect and two first-round picks. That was the package that was agreed upon."
So, why didn't it happen?
"There were some complications ahead of the deadline. It didn't get through and they are going to presumably revisit it. This was under a previous Leafs regime with Brad Treliving. Now, John Chayka is there. According to some reports, I think Chris Johnston put it out, that they're willing to listen on anybody but Auston Matthews right now. That's because Auston has to tell them if he's willing to listen to them. That's the big part of it too. And on the Matthews thing, that's status quo, he still wants to win. He still wants to stay in Toronto.
"But this was the big one. This was the one that the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens were working on."
Trading Matthew Knies would have kickstarted the Leafs' rebuild
While it seems to be a fairly even price to pay, since Alexander Zharovsky is seen as one of the true next great Russian talents -- who was just crowned as the KHL Rookie of the Year. And then adding two first-round picks would have been nice to soften the blow of the Leafs not having their own next two first-rounders.
But it still feels wrong.
Under Treliving, the Leafs were heading to a downward spiral and if before he was eventually fired and replaced by John Chayka, traded one of the only few good young talents Toronto has right now, off to their archrival for future assets, it would've been hitting the big red button to launch a nuclear weapon.
Auston Matthews would have probably wanted out since the actual NHL team just got worse. William Nylander could have soon followed. And then we would just be left with John Tavares and a pile of AHLers to head into next season with and Toronto would have handed over a top-five pick to the Philadelphia Flyers like it was nothing.
It would have been a disaster from the moment the trade would've been official. We have no idea what the complications were but thank goodness for those complications.
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