There are undoubtedly huge shoes to fill with Mitch Marner’s departure, but Matthew Knies believes the Toronto Maple Leafs will be set up strong with their offseason additions.
Toronto acquired Nicolas Roy in the Marner sign-and-trade with the Vegas Golden Knights earlier this summer, while also bringing in Matias Maccelli and Dakota Joshua for future draft picks. It'll be a lineup plentiful in depth, though how it might look is likely still being determined.
“It’ll be a bit different without Mitch, but the acquisitions we’ve made have been looking good,” Knies told The Toronto Sun’s Lance Hornby on Saturday at an autograph session in Toronto to mark his new promo deal with the brand Tylenol. “I don’t know what we’ll put together at the start of the season, but we have a lot of great players on our team.
“Any way that they (Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving and head coach Craig Berube) do it, hopefully we find a way that works and gives us (long-term) success.”
One of the big questions that intrigues everyone is who’ll take Marner’s spot on Toronto’s top line with Knies and Auston Matthews once this season begins. A couple of options include the new additions, like Maccelli or, potentially, Joshua.
Or Toronto could opt for the easy selection: William Nylander. After all, he did tally the most goals of all Maple Leafs last season with 45.
“Willy is pretty dynamic,” Knies said. “That wouldn’t be a bad thing at all.”
The conversation about who’ll replace Marner was likely big amongst Toronto’s fans this offseason, however, there should also be a discussion about Knies’ improvement year over year in Toronto.
Not only did he score 29 goals and 29 assists for 58 points in 78 games—plus five goals and two assists in 13 playoff appearances—but Knies was also one of 44 players invited to Team USA’s Olympic Orientation Camp next week in Plymouth, Michigan.
He hopes to play in his second Winter Olympics with the United States early next year in Milan, Italy. Knies' first Olympic campaign came while he was still at the University of Minnesota in 2022. Knies and Matthews will fly to Michigan together for the camp, which will run from August 26-28.
“That is going to be a cool experience, just to meet a lot of those (Americans) to see what they do on and off the ice,” Knies said. “Pick each other’s brains. Hopefully, I get a strong start to the season and make that team.”
Knies told Hornby he has spent the offseason training in Minnesota with a couple of other players, including the Anaheim Ducks’ Jackson LaCombe and Drew Helleson, plus St. Louis Blues forward Jimmy Snuggerud.
The 22-year-old will return to Toronto after the Team USA camp to continue with pre-training camp sessions with the other Maple Leafs who are in town before officially getting going midway through September.
“I’m looking forward to camp and thus get to enjoy these last two weeks off because we want to go as far as possible,” he said. “Without Mitch … it’s going to obviously be different. Definitely weird in the locker room not seeing him at first.”
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