I love Knies, and in my ideal world, we'd have a ton of other assets we can use to completely reshape the roster as needed - but I'm also realistic.
On these boards, it's apparent that Knies has that "Power Forward" shine that seems to obscure any issues in the glare. I'm not looking to crap on Knies, he's awesome - but if you're being realistic, his underlying numbers away from the top line are not stellar, he's shown (to date) that he's not able to drive a line on his own, and he's not as physical as you'd like him to be considering his tool box - especially he seems very timid for a while every time after he gets hurt.
Realistically - Knies is not the one-man answer to winning the cup. He's an incredible supporting piece, but not a make or break piece. BUT, just as this board puts that crazy shine on Power Forwards, so do some other GM's and he's an asset from a position of strength that can potentially be used to fill multiple other holes.
Also of note; NO ONE is saying 'get rid of Knies' or 'dump Knies' - EVERYONE ok with a deal is saying "Only consider for dramatic overpayment" - something that seems to get missed.