There has been so much discussion lately about what the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to do this summer. With no desire at all to even think about a rebuild, especially with two future first-round picks belonging to other teams, general manager John Chayka has a tall task ahead of him to turn this team around.
One thing that he is reportedly thinking about doing is trading away 23-year-old power winger Matthew Knies likely at the peak of his value to help the team in other positions of need.
Matthew Knies could be traded by Maple Leafs soon
According to a recent report, a whole lot of people around the league seem to get the sense that this is going to happen -- that the Leafs are going to trade Knies this offseason.
"Depending on who you talk to, there are a number of NHL executives who believe that Matthew Knies will be traded," Darren Dreger reported on That's Hockey last week. "I don't think you're going to get anything as definitive as that from the Maple Leafs at this point. But John Chayka is definitely doing his due diligence, as are other clubs -- finding out why Matthew Knies would be available for a trade."
Dreger continued to say that it could be the Leafs just trying to fish for the best possible offer and to see if it is something that they are willing to take in return. As well that Knies himself is working on shedding some weight and getting much faster this summer to build upon last season.
And on the same day as Dreger reported that, fellow insider Frank Seravalli came out and said that it is his belief that Knies is going to be traded. More specifically, that the Leafs are looking for a top-10 pick in this year's draft as part of the return.
Those are two fairly big signs pointing to this happening, if we are to believe members of other team's front offices.
All of this was reported before John Chayka came out and said that it is "not probable" that the Leafs are going to trade Knies, but we've seen something happen like this before. It's not uncommon for a general manager to give a little bit of wiggle room in an answer whether or not they are going to trade a player, to then make the move when they want to get the right package. Heck, saying that publicly could be a ploy to make a team raise their offer if they really want Knies this summer.
It's all going to be a very interesting next couple of weeks in Toronto, and that is already after last week when they made a couple trades and hired a head coach.
Add us as a preferred source on Google