{"id":509502,"date":"2026-03-18T12:39:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T12:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/509502\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T12:39:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T12:39:18","slug":"3-teams-named-as-matthew-knies-trade-partners-for-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/509502\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Teams Named as Matthew Knies Trade Partners for Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the Toronto Maple Leafs really are open to discussing a Matthew Knies trade\u2014and several insiders around the sport say that they were at the deadline\u2014he would bring the team back a much better return than either Auston Matthews or William Nylander could. So says\u00a0insider Nick Kypreos<\/a>, and his explanation, centering on the fact that Knies does not have any trade protection, makes sense:<\/p>\n

If the Leafs are looking to make a big splash, a deal with Knies could attract a bidding war with far more teams involved than if they were to shop around\u00a0Auston Matthews\u00a0or William Nylander, who have no-move clauses and would essentially pick their future teams. With Knies, the Leafs can control the whole process, which could give them a nice selection of high-end talent to choose from.<\/p>\n

To that end, Kypreos names three teams that make the most sense as trade partners for the Leafs in any Matthew Knies talks. Starting with the team that really started all these rumors in the first place:<\/p>\n

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Montreal Canadiens<\/p>\n

GM Kent Hughes got everyone\u2019s attention when he said after the deadline that he was working on something \u201csignificant\u201d right down to the wire, and could revisit it in the summer. The Knies rumors were born, courtesy of Kypreos and other insiders like Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet and Renaud Lavoie of TVA.<\/p>\n

The Leafs would be looking for \u201cthree or four pieces\u201d, and, of course, the Habs are overflowing with top young players & prospects. Kyper says\u00a0Michael Hage, Dave Reinbacher, Owen Beck and Kaiden Guhle would be \u201cinteresting names to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chicago Blackhawks<\/p>\n

Another team with a boatload of young assets they could offer. They aren\u2019t nearly as far along as the Canadiens in becoming a serious contender, but Knies would be a huge addition for them to take the next step. Kyper points out that the Hawks have had interest in Knies going back a few years, when former Toronto GM Kyle Dubas talked to them about a trade that would have brought Brandon Hagel to Toronto. \u201cThe Blackhawks\u2019 interest in Knies hasn\u2019t wavered,\u201d writes Kypreos.<\/p>\n

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Mammoth have plenty of notable prospects that could interest Leafs in a Knies trade package<\/p>\n

Utah Mammoth<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve been looking to make a big splash up front, and although they did land a coveted trade piece at the deadline in defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, they\u2019re still looking for a top-six difference maker. Kyper names a ton of impressive prospects the Mammoth are sitting on that would greatly interest the Leafs, including\u00a0Caleb Desnoyers, Tij Iginla, Maveric Lamoureux, and Russian Daniil But.<\/p>\n

Kypreos sums it all up for Toronto by noting that \u201cif this deadline proved anything, it\u2019s that adding significant picks and prospects will be hard to do if a trade doesn\u2019t involve one of Matthews, Nylander or Knies.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the Toronto Maple Leafs really are open to discussing a Matthew Knies trade\u2014and several insiders around the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[532,97,96,2300,5,1748,1749,2339,20,5172,797,21,4,2783,66,31,5171,24096,3154,1114],"class_list":["post-509502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-auston-matthews","tag-brandon-hagel","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-elliotte-friedman","tag-hockey","tag-kaiden-guhle","tag-kent-hughes","tag-mackenzie-weegar","tag-maple-leafs","tag-mapleleafs","tag-matthew-knies","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nhl","tag-nick-kypreos","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-torontomapleleafs","tag-trade-protection","tag-utah-mammoth","tag-william-nylander"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116250225152656511","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}