The Toronto Maple Leafs are moving on from one of their young homegrown and hometown stars, but that doesn't mean they will be taking a step back, according to one of their key players.
Matthew Knies, who shared a line with the departing Mitch Marner for most of last season, isn't expressing any concern or worry about how the Leafs will recover from the loss. According to him, they're going to be even better after some strong additions to the roster in the early days of the offseason, and it's just the business of hockey.
Matthew Knies on the Mitch Marner trade: pic.twitter.com/Mv5fDIFpsn
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"I wasn't the happiest to see that he's leaving but I think we made some great moves, some great additions. I think we're going to be stronger," Knies said Tuesday. "I think we're going to have a great team. You're not excited to see one of your captains, one of your veteran players on another team, but that's the business of the game. I think we're going to make some strong moves, and I have full faith in [Treliving] and Berube to create a winning team."
And so far, the Leafs are getting stronger and addressing some needs.
In return for Marner in the sign-and-trade with the Vegas Golden Knights, the Maple Leafs received strong and steady bottom-six center Nicolas Roy to solidify the defensive side of their forward group. And right before free agency opened, they bought extremely low on young playmaking winger Matias Maccelli from Utah, for nothing but a mid-round draft pick.
Those two moves alone can provide a whole lot of what the Leafs were missing in the playoffs last year: Steady, reliable scoring depth and ability to move the puck up the ice. And both of those players come at a combined cap hit of $6.45 million, just over half of what Marner is costing the Golden Knights on his new contract.
It's not a perfect replacement, but the Leafs needed to become a deeper team and they're doing that. And this might just be the beginning of it. Especially considering that John Tavares stayed in Toronto on a very team-friendly contract and Knies himself re-upped with the Leafs with a six-year contract that comes at a manageable $7.75-million AAV.
It's nice to have another young player believe in what is being built in Toronto. Let's see where the Summer of Treliving gets us.