Player Discussion Matthew Knies | Built for the Playoffs

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Why do a lot of people think trading Knies is a mistake? If he nets us a top pairing d-man and/or 2nd line center along with a blue chip prospect and a high draft pick, why is this so bad?

You have to give to get. Chayka said there are still significant moves to make. We have no other assets that would net us an impressive haul. No one is going to just give Toronto their best assets for our garbage. Our defence is still GARBAGE even with the addition of Raddysh.

If he is traded, it better be a grand slam of a return. I would want 2OA + in return.

 

[Szymonsays]

If he is traded, it better be a grand slam of a return. I would want 2OA + in return.

I would love the 2OA as well, but it's unlikely. And in that scenario it means we draft Stenberg, so we are just replacing a LW with another LW. San Jose doesn't have any good top pairing d-man to give us as an additional add. We need a more rounded team and we need defence. Other teams could give us a top ten pick and likely add in a top-pairing d-man among other pieces.

 

[Carl Lindros]

Why do a lot of people think trading Knies is a mistake?

I tried to count them the other day, guys who are 220+ who have top 6 skill, there is Tom Wilson, The big Protas brother, His younger brother seems like he will or could get there. That's it as far as I can remember, there was 1 more...Ovechkin is who I think I was thinking of. Tage Thompson too, Martone might come into camp 220+ There are a few guys who are prospects who could be 220+ in the league in a top 6 role in the future. But it's still an incredibly small amount of players. Around 10 even if the prospects pan out? They all have varying degrees of physicality, Knies is on the middle leaning towards Tom Wilson. Big Protas IIRC had 30 something hits last season at 250(ish) pounds...Knies is good for around 200 hits in a season but isn't going to bury someone in the corner from behind then beat up the guy who comes in to defend his teammate like Wilson.

Knies' speed is a factor, played injured and was in the top 30% of forwards for speed and bursts at 230+ with what I heard was a lower body injury.

As someone pointed out to me, he has very little when it comes to SOG, but has a career shooting % of 16.3% so if he's getting 200-300 shots he's scoring 30+ and 40+ goals. (potentially, maybe his shot % is so high because he picks his spots to shoot so well) Knies is playing with two shoot first centers, which, traditionally the center is the playmaker, and he's being asked to do different things than most other wingers to play with them, I wouldn't say more, but he's definitely not doing less playing with Matthews or Tavares. If he was playing on the wing of Eichel or McDavid or whoever was feeding Brady Tkachuk Knies would be scoring 40 goals for fun (IF the NHL math works in a perfect world)

He plays injured, the guy has been knocked out of games with what looked like head injuries and a big deal wasn't made about it. He's missed a handful of games in his career so far so he's durable and willing to play through pain. The rest of the team doesn't do that. It's a must have to win a cup, or even make a deep run.

He's just a unique player when it comes to physical dimensions, skill, mentality, speed, and shutting up when asked to play whatever role in whatever system with whatever linemates. Just gets on with it as best as he can.

Add to that the fact he's played for two different head coaches in 3 years and it's not like he was able to go from strength to strength every season especially with Marner leaving during one of those Berube years.

 

[Szymonsays]

I tried to count them the other day, guys who are 220+ who have top 6 skill, there is Tom Wilson, The big Protas brother, His younger brother seems like he will or could get there. That's it as far as I can remember, there was 1 more...Ovechkin is who I think I was thinking of. Tage Thompson too, Martone might come into camp 220+ There are a few guys who are prospects who could be 220+ in the league in a top 6 role in the future. But it's still an incredibly small amount of players. Around 10 even if the prospects pan out? They all have varying degrees of physicality, Knies is on the middle leaning towards Tom Wilson. Big Protas IIRC had 30 something hits last season at 250(ish) pounds...Knies is good for around 200 hits in a season but isn't going to bury someone in the corner from behind then beat up the guy who comes in to defend his teammate like Wilson.

Knies' speed is a factor, played injured and was in the top 30% of forwards for speed and bursts at 230+ with what I heard was a lower body injury.

As someone pointed out to me, he has very little when it comes to SOG, but has a career shooting % of 16.3% so if he's getting 200-300 shots he's scoring 30+ and 40+ goals. (potentially, maybe his shot % is so high because he picks his spots to shoot so well) Knies is playing with two shoot first centers, which, traditionally the center is the playmaker, and he's being asked to do different things than most other wingers to play with them, I wouldn't say more, but he's definitely not doing less playing with Matthews or Tavares. If he was playing on the wing of Eichel or McDavid or whoever was feeding Brady Tkachuk Knies would be scoring 40 goals for fun (IF the NHL math works in a perfect world)

He plays injured, the guy has been knocked out of games with what looked like head injuries and a big deal wasn't made about it. He's missed a handful of games in his career so far so he's durable and willing to play through pain. The rest of the team doesn't do that. It's a must have to win a cup, or even make a deep run.

He's just a unique player when it comes to physical dimensions, skill, mentality, speed, and shutting up when asked to play whatever role in whatever system with whatever linemates. Just gets on with it as best as he can.

Add to that the fact he's played for two different head coaches in 3 years and it's not like he was able to go from strength to strength every season especially with Marner leaving during one of those Berube years.

I know he's an amazing player. But i'm also worried about the short lifespan that power forwards tend to have. They seem to be in their prime for only a few years before the physical toll on their bodies reduces their effectiveness.

But we have nothing in our prospect pool right now that can come in and make us a more well-rounded team.

Chayka wants us to compete and will likely be trying to go all in for the next two years. If we were doing a rebuild and potentially planning on trading Matthews and Nylander for a massive haul, then I would be all for keeping Knies.

 

[Carl Lindros]

I know he's an amazing player. But i'm also worried about the short lifespan that power forwards tend to have. They seem to be in their prime for only a few years before the physical toll on their bodies reduces their effectiveness.

But we have nothing in our prospect pool right now that can come in and make us a more well-rounded team.

Chayka wants us to compete and will likely be trying to go all in for the next two years. If we were doing a rebuild and potentially planning on trading Matthews and Nylander for a massive haul, then I would be all for keeping Knies.

You're right about that, very few power forwards have a long shelf life. Some have speculated on the boards that maybe part of Toronto wanting to get rid of him is they know he's had concussions.

I think they should get rid of him if they're not going to get him a pass first center to play with. But I do ultimately think it's a mistake to draft, develop, and trade a guy who you hit on at the draft.

 

[Antropovsky]

Maybe 7th and Shane Wright or Bourque being involved? Lots of good pieces on both teams.