Let’s address the elephant in the room right off the top – the Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t win this series. We know.
But when one of your top prospects gets to put on the cape and be his team’s hero for the night, when he can say that he scored an overtime playoff goal for one of the most storied franchises in the league, it’s something worth fondly reflecting on.
Matthew Knies was selected in the second round of the 2021 NHL Draft and wasn’t known to many at the time. He had a bit of a rough draft year with the USHL’s Tri-City Storm, with his production dropping off in what was his second season with the team. When he arrived at the University of Minnesota, however, the perception around him changed. With each game he played, he looked more and more like the power-forward type the Leafs needed to fill the void left by Zach Hyman.
Although his team lost in the Frozen Four final in 2022-23, he signed his entry-level contract and joined the Maple Leafs for their final three games of the season and then the playoffs. Knies wasn’t necessarily a hero in any of the games that propelled the Leafs to their first second-round appearance since 2004, but you could see in his style of play what he was capable of doing when the going got tough. And he had his first moment in the first round of the 2023-24 playoffs against the Boston Bruins.
With the Maple Leafs playing on their heels, finding themselves in a next-goal-wins scenario to determine whether or not they would keep playing or go home, Knies did what he did best – he drove the net and banked home a rebound left by John Tavares to send the Maple Leafs back to Toronto for Game 6.
Knies is excelling in his second full season as a Leaf, with 11 goals and 19 points in 33 games. He’s well on pace to surpass his total of 35 from his rookie season, and no longer looks like somebody you can leave out of the top-six unless absolutely necessary. He will have another opportunity in a short few months to show what he can do when the postseason begins.