Dave Litman
When Montreal Canadiens GM Kent Hughes held his post-trade deadline media conference, he said the team was very close to a blockbuster deal right down to the wire. It was a trade, he said, that would have had a “significant impact” on his team for the present and the future.
Insider Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet has revealed that he heard that the potential deal Hughes was referring to would have been a rare trade between the Habs and their bitter rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs. And it sounds like it involved Matthew Knies.
There is a sense, in at least my inner world, that the deal [Kent Hughes] was working on was with the Toronto Maple Leafs… There is a sense out there that perhaps there was something brewing around [Matthew Knies]… I can tell you that his name was out there with multiple teams.
If you really, really think about it, outside of (Auston) Matthews and (William) Nylander, who was out there that could provide the Leafs with a multiple of top, top talent? It’s Knies. I’m not confirming anything. I’m just telling you, that’s the word and that’s the feel… that, if there was something with Kent Hughes going on, a lot of people are pointing to him and the Leafs today.
Canadiens boast one of the top NHL prospect pools
As Kypreos noted, the Habs, of course, have a ton of young talent that they could have sent to Toronto in such a blockbuster. And as we all know, restocking an empty prospects cupboard is something the Leafs desperately need to do. “The (Canadiens) have a lot. And if Treliving was working on something with Knies, he’s the one guy that can bring you back that type of return,” said Kypreos.
It didn’t go down, but there was something else that Hughes said that we should specifically take note of:
We spent a lot of time on one particular file, but it went down to the last minute and didn’t happen. But that won’t stop us from revisiting it in the summer.
Right. It’s that ‘revisit it in the summer’ thing that will keep us all on the edge of our seats going into the offseason.
Is Matthew Knies really untouchable for Leafs?
To be clear, it’s always been felt that Knies was untouchable among the Leafs’ core going forward. Heck, they even reportedly turned down a Mikko Rantanen offering from the Carolina Hurricanes back at the 2025 trade deadline.
Knies, in some people’s minds, has taken a step back this season. The 23-year-old won’t come close to the 29-goals he potted last year, but let’s remember that his 35 assists are a career high, and his 51 points in 61 games do put him on pace to top the 58 points he notched last season as his personal best.
The young power forward possesses a unique talent of skill, size, physicality, and high hockey IQ. Toronto signed him to a six-year, $7.75M AAV extension last summer. And stunningly, it carries no trade protection. That’s not a typo. ‘NO’ trade protection (at least until the final year of the deal in 2030-31, when he has a 10-team no-trade list).
Clearly, the return would have to be enormous. And for the Leafs and Canadiens to swing a deal and take the risk of helping the other to the promised land, both sides had better be 100% convinced that they’re winning the deal.
In fact, we were alerted to the idea last week that Toronto would listen on Knies, but only with the stipulation that the offer would be ‘so massive they couldn’t turn it down.’
Apparently, that didn’t happen. At least not yet. We’ve still got the summer.
