Matthew Knies Has Something the Maple Leafs Can’t Afford to Waste

There is a pretty easy way to look at the Matthew Knies story this season. He scored 66 points in 79 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs last year. He is healthy again. Auston Matthews thinks he has not even come close to reaching his ceiling. Jack Roslovic likes playing with him. Head coach Jim Hiller is interested enough in the Matthews-Knies-Roslovic line that he wants to see what it can do right away.

So naturally, we start talking about numbers. Could Knies score 30 goals? Could he get 75 or 80 points? Maybe. But I think that misses the more interesting part of this story.

The Maple Leafs Don’t Need Knies to Become a Scoring Machine

The Maple Leafs don’t need Knies to become another Matthews. They need him to be the player who lets Matthews be Matthews a little more often. That’s a different job.

One thing that jumped out in Roslovic’s comments was his description of Knies as a player who can “control the game in a little bit different way than Auston can.” That’s an interesting way of putting it. Matthews controls games with his shooting, his hands, his ability to find open ice and his ability to turn half a chance into a goal. Knies can control a game by making a defenseman miserable.

He retrieves pucks. He wins battles. He gets to the net. He is difficult to move when he gets established down low. He can make a play, but he can also simply make life uncomfortable for the other team.

Sometimes the Guy Who Gets the Goal Isn’t the Most Important Player

Hockey has a funny way of making the guy who gets the goal look like the most important player on the ice. Sometimes he is. But sometimes the play begins 20 feet earlier, when somebody wins a battle along the boards, gets the puck back, takes a hit to make a play or creates enough chaos in front of the net that somebody else gets a clean look.

That seems to be where Knies can become particularly valuable. Matthews said he’s a nightmare for defensemen battling down low. Roslovic talked about his ability to retrieve pucks and be disruptive around the net. Knies himself talked about wanting to become reliable on both sides of the puck and supporting his linemates.

Notice what wasn’t in any of those comments. Nobody is talking about making Knies a star. They’re talking about making him the kind of player stars want beside them. Given how goals are usually scored, that’s an important contribution.

Still, Knies Should Get His Points With or Without Tons of Goals

Knies scored 66 points last season despite dealing with a knee injury for much of the year. He missed only three games after the injury and kept playing, though he had to manage it with consistent treatment and time off the ice during practices. Now he says he’s back to 100 percent.

So there is room for more offence. But perhaps the real question isn’t how many goals Knies will score. It’s how many different things he can do on a shift. That’s where the Maple Leafs could really benefit.

Toronto has plenty of players who can score. What it needs from Knies is some of the less glamorous stuff that makes scoring easier for everybody else. In a typical shift, what might fans be watching Knies do? Here’s what that might look like on a typical shift. Get the puck back. Win the battle. Go to the net. Protect the puck. Make the defenseman turn around. Create a second chance. Then do it again.

The Bottom Line for Knies Is That This Is How Successful Playoff Hockey Works

And this is where the timing of Knies’ development gets interesting. The Maple Leafs have talked a lot about becoming a team that can handle the kind of hockey that arrives in April. A 6-foot-3 winger who can skate, score, defend, win battles and make life miserable around the crease fits that conversation rather nicely.

Maybe Knies becomes a 30-goal scorer. Maybe he gets 80 points. Those would be nice numbers. But I’d be just as interested in something harder to measure: how often does a Matthews shift become dangerous because Knies did something first? The answer might tell us more about his importance to the Maple Leafs than his point total ever will.

What Is Knies’ Ceiling with the Matthews’ Line?

Matthews says Knies hasn’t scratched the surface of his ceiling. Maybe the ceiling isn’t simply higher numbers. Maybe it’s becoming one of those players who changes what a line can do. And if that happens, the Maple Leafs may discover they have something more valuable than another scorer. They may have found the player who helps make their best scorer even more dangerous.