Enough of the doom and gloom in Leafsland. Once again, the Toronto Maple Leafs were good enough to make the playoffs and come back from a 3-1 deficit to take their first-round series to a seventh game. However, they needed to be better to get past that point. Yes, they made mistakes at crucial times that cost them games. Yes, they had players underperform in the playoffs. But you know what? They aren’t alone. At least 24 other teams are either in the same boat or worse.
The one nice thing about professional team sports is that once one season ends, there is always next season to prepare for, to talk about, and to bring hope that things get better. Everything resets.
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With that in mind, some players have shown Maple Leafs fans that they might be ready to take the next developmental step and give us something to look forward to for next season.
Matthew Knies
Matthews Knies was the Maple Leafs’ 57th pick in the second round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound American player from Phoenix, Arizona, remained in college after the draft and scored 36 goals while adding 39 assists for 75 points in 73 games for the University of Minnesota. Knies was named the “Big Ten Player of The Year” and was a Hobey Baker finalist in 2023.
Upon completing his college season, Knies joined the Maple Leafs for the last three regular-season games in 2023 and notched one assist in those three games. More importantly, he played well enough to earn the right to play in seven postseason games for Toronto. He scored his first NHL goal against the Florida Panthers in Round 2 of the playoffs and finished the postseason with four points in seven games.
As a 21-year-old rookie during the 2023-24 season, Knies played up and down the lineup and spent considerable time in the top six. He appeared in 80 games, scored 15 goals, and added 20 assists for 35 points. He finished the season at plus-9 in plus/minus rating, registered 169 hits, and was credited with 38 takeaways.
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Over the last two seasons, Knies has also produced in the playoffs. In 14 games, he has three goals, four assists, seven points, and 38 hits. He saw his ice time go up in the playoffs from 13:41 per game in the regular season to 15:05 per game in the postseason.
By the eye test, Knies appears to be a good support player in the top six. He was willing to go into the corners and the dirty areas in front of the net. He provided the grunt work for whoever he was playing with. He also showed he could drive his own line in the bottom six.
The biggest thing about Knies was that he looked and played like a big, strong NHL player. He was not shy about jumping into battles for the puck, and he won those battles more than he lost them. He was also good at keeping the puck when he got it. He made good moves in tight spaces with it and used his body well to shield the puck.
While it would have been nice to see him score a few more goals and points, he showed the potential to become a 20-goal, 50-point player. Knies has a year left on his $925,000 per-season entry-level contract (ELC) deal.
Bobby McMann
The 27-year-old Bobby McMann took much longer to make it to the NHL than Knies did. He played his first NHL game when he was 26. The undrafted McMann from Wainright, Alberta, decided to take the collegiate route in his hockey career and attended Colgate University in the United States. He was signed as a free agent by the Toronto Marlies in 2020. He then signed a two-way deal with the Maple Leafs in 2022.
After playing 21 games for the Marlies in the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season and scoring four points (two goals and two assists), McMann made the most of his next 97 games in the American Hockey League (AHL) over three seasons, scoring 47 goals and adding 20 assists for a total of 67 points. If we prorate McMann’s totals to an 82-game season, he would have 22 goals, 13 assists, and 35 points. In 66 NHL games, the 6-foot-2, 210-pound McMann has not shied away from the rough stuff, registering 134 hits.
McMann did have one fight this past season. It was against Ilya Lyubushkin before the Maple Leafs acquired him at the trade deadline. McMann suffered a lower-body injury in the third last game of the regular season that kept him out of the playoff round against the Boston Bruins. Still, he was participating in practices near the end of the series and might have been healthy enough to play if the Maple Leafs had gone on to the second round.
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While it would have been nice to see if McMann would have come close to the 20-goal mark if he had started the season earlier, like Knies, he showed the potential to become a 20-goal, 50-point player. He has two years remaining on his $1.35 million per-season contract and becomes an unrestricted free agent after the 2025-26 season.
The Bottom Line for Maple Leafs Young Power Forwards
In Knies and McMann, the Maple Leafs have two powerful, young forwards who can put up points and complement the elite, established talent in the lineup. Interestingly, they seem exactly like new Maple Leafs’ head coach Craig Berube’s kind of guys – hard-working, honest, blue-collar hockey players.
Fans should expect both to have stronger seasons in 2024-25 as they mature toward what they can eventually become as NHL players.
[Note: I want to thank long-time Maple Leafs fan Stan Smith for collaborating with me on this post. Stan’s Facebook profile can be found here.]
