The Toronto Maple Leafs have a new "Core Four".
After Mitch Marner left the Toronto Maple Leafs to join the Vegas Golden Knights, I hoped that I would never have to write the term "core four" but fortunately (or unfortunately however you look at it), there's a new four-pack tearing up the NHL. We knew that he was a great player last year but in four games thus far, Matthew Knies has elevated himself to be a fantastic replacement to Marner.
Although he's on-pace for 123 points this year (6 points in 4 games...), I don't think there's a chance that Knies will come close to triple-digits but I do think it's possible that he can be a point-per-game player beside Matthews. After signing a monster extension, Knies knows that he's a key piece to the team's success and knows that he's going to be paired with Matthews every night, so that confidence should help his growth.
Currently in his third full season, the 22-year-old forward is looking to improve upon his 29 goal and 58 point campaign last year and after four games, it looks like he's making another leap forward. The biggest thing that has been impressive in Knies' game in his playmaking ability. Throughout his career, he's never been one to put up monster assist numbers, but with five assists in four games, he's been showing an improvement in that side of his game.
Leafs new "Core Four" is off to a hot start
The biggest takeaway in my opinion was the two-on-one goal that he assisted Matthews on against Nashville on Tuesday night. As Matthews came down the wing, he passed it over to Knies, in which the entire building assumed he would shoot, but instead thought quickly to get the puck back to the best goal-scorer in the world to put it home.
That play was something that Marner would do every time but to see Knies make that high IQ play was awesome. Instead of panicking with the puck on his stick close to the net, he made an unbelievable play to get the puck back to Matthews, who scored what would be the game-winning goal.
As much as the "Core Four" term scares us as Leafs fans because of the playoff failures, this new core is putting up points and clearly delivering thus far, which is great to see. William Nylander has seven points, John Tavares has six points, while Knies also has six points and Matthews has three goals.
We thought that Marner's absence could spark lower point totals for the Leafs top players, but so far, it's working and the team hasn't missed the former First-Team All Star's presence. That may change as the season progresses but Knies is turning into an unbelievable replacement.