With the NHL regular season on the horizon, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets have agreed to a huge trade involving Kirill Marchenko and Matthew Knies.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have made one last splash before the start of the season.
Columbus Blue Jackets forwards Kirill Marchenko, Miles Wood and goaltender Elvis Merzlikins have been traded to the Maple Leafs in exchange for Matthew Knies, Steven Lorentz, Emil Andrae and a conditional 2027 second-round pick.
In addition, the 26-year-old has agreed to a six-year, $75-million extension that will keep him under contract in Toronto until the conclusion of the 2032-33 season.
This news comes after months of speculation on the Russian winger's future with the franchise, with rumors suggesting he was not open to signing an extension in Columbus when his three-year, $11.5-million contract expired at the end of this upcoming season.
Marchenko was a second-round pick of the Blue Jackets in the 2018 NHL Draft and made his debut in the 2022-23 season, recording 25 points in 59 games, with 21 of them being goals.
He has put together 208 points in 292 games across his four seasons with the franchise and has led the team in goals in the last three, with his best year coming in 2024-25 where he scored 31 goals and finished with 74 points in 79 games.
Merzlikins will join Marchenko in Toronto but is out indefinitely after undergoing shoulder surgery during the off-season. The 32-year-old has played 124 games over the last three seasons with the Blue Jackets and has put together an .890 save percentage and a 3.34 goals-against average.
The Latvian netminder is entering the final season of a five-year deal that carries a $5.4 million AAV.
Wood is set to enter his 10th NHL season and will be joining his fourth team with the Maple Leafs. The 31-year-old suited up for 54 games with the Blue Jackets last season, scoring eight goals and finishing with 14 points.
Heading the other way to Columbus, Knies was a second-round pick of the Maple Leafs in the 2021 NHL Draft and made his debut towards the end of the 2022-23 season. The 23-year-old is coming off a 23-goal, 66-point campaign and has put together 160 points in 240 career games with Toronto.
Knies is set to enter the second season of a six-year, $46.5-million extension ($7.75 million AAV) that will keep him under contract with the Blue Jackets until 2031.
Lorentz spent the past two seasons with the Maple Leafs and previously won a Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers in the 2023-24 season. Andrae was acquired by the Maple Leafs in a trade earlier in the off-season that sent goaltender Joseph Woll to the Philadelphia Flyers.
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