The Toronto Maple Leafs might have done something they haven't done in 25 years

The Toronto Maple Leafs haven't drafted and developed a home-grown star player since they took Tomas Kaberle in the 8th round of the 1996 draft, and he made his NHL debut in the 1998 season.

Tomas Kaberle is likely the second-best defenseman the Toronto Maple Leafs have ever had, after Borje Salming, but more importantly, Kaberle marks the last time the team was able to strike gold late in the draft.

Players like Brad Boyes and Carter Verheaghe have been drafted by the Leafs and found success with other organizations, but the Leafs haven't developed a star with a lower pick than William Nylander, who went 8th, in nearly 30 years.

Until, perhaps, now.

The Toronto Maple Leafs might have done something they haven't done in 25 years

The Leafs have had a lot of things go wrong in the last eight years, but they likely would have a Stanley Cup with Auston Matthews' name on it already if they had only been able to fluke out with a late-round gem.

The Blackhawks (Keith), Red Wings (Datsyuk), Penguins (Letang), Lightning (Point, Kucherov), Kings (Quick) and Bruins (Bergeron, Marchand) are all teams that had prolonged success in the salary cap era, and every single one of them got lucky with a random draft pick that turned into a superstar player.

The Leafs have had no such luck (or skill)...until now, that is. Maybe.

Matthew Knies, who is 6'3, 230lbs, was drafted in the second round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, 57th overall. So far this season, he appears to have broken out into star territory, and if that turns out to be true, then the Leafs chances at a Stanley Cup just took a huge upward turn.

Star players are basically all that matters on an NHL team, and adding another star to what the Leafs already have would be a big deal, especially if that is a player who is already on the roster and not currently being paid very much money.

Knies has 5 goals in 10 games playing on the Leafs top line, and you don't even need a calculator to figure out that that is a 41 goal pace. Incredibly, all five goals are at 5v5, which makes the pace even more impressive.

Knies isn't likely to continue to score on a quarter of his shots for very long, but since he's scoring garbage goals on rebounds from Auston Matthews shots, it honestly might not drop by that much. Additionally, while he won't continue to score so frequently at 5v5, he also won't continue to not score at all on the power-play, which should help balance some of the invevitable regression.

Better news than the scoring are the on-ice numbers. The Leafs are getting 55% puck possession, 55% of the shots, 59% of the scoring chances, 63% of the dangerous chances, and 56% of the expected goals while Knies is on the ice. (stats naturalstattrick.com).

Those are incredible numbers, and of course they are driven by Auston Matthews, but not everyone can keep up. We've seen countless wingers come and go with Matthews and though there are success stories like Domi, Hyman and Bunting, there have been others like Mikheyev and Kapanen who just don't gel.

A 40 goal, 65+ point season from Knies where he's on a first line posting some of the best on-ice numbers in the NHL would make Matthews Knies into a legitamate star player, and if that happens, the Leafs will be a much harder team to play against. than they have been in the past.

That is what they are getting right now. If Knies keeps it up, it will be the fist time in 30 years this has happened.