{"id":130381,"date":"2025-09-09T04:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T04:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/130381\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T04:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T04:29:08","slug":"matthew-knies-really-confident-in-maple-leafs-despite-marner-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/130381\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Knies \u2018really confident\u2019 in Maple Leafs despite Marner departure"},"content":{"rendered":"

HENDERSON, NV \u2014 Matthew Knies<\/a> was one of the key benefactors of Mitch Marner\u2019s career-best 102-point season in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

The hulking sophomore himself hung career highs in goals (29) and points (58). Certainly hopping over the boards for top-line and top-power-play shifts alongside the all-world playmaker didn\u2019t hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And yet despite Marner\u2019s off-season departure to the Vegas Golden Knights, via trade for Nicolas Roy, Knies\u2019s belief in the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> hasn\u2019t wavered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it\u2019s hard to replace a guy like that. He’s kind of a big player for us, with production,\u00a0\u00a0the way he played, special teams,\u201d Knies told Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas during a recording of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast Monday in Henderson, Nevada.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a good job of acquiring some great players, some big players that play strong, add a lot of value to our team, a lot of depth. And I think we have a lot of players right now that can play many roles and step in for occasions that we need them to. So, I\u2019m really confident in our group.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"3232 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n

Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.<\/p>\n

Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\n

So confident, Knies signed a juicy six-year, $46.5-million contract extension on July 2 without much drama.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old will be out to crack the 30-goal mark and avenge last spring\u2019s gutting seven-game Round 2 loss to the eventual champion Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n

A defeat that had him steering clear of catching hockey on the TV in the days afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just a little bit pissed off,\u201d Knies said. \u201cIt sucks to sit on the couch and watch other guys play what you play or do what you want to be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knies uses the word\u00a0unacceptable\u00a0to describe Toronto Game 7 performance at home, a 6-1 defeat that marked Marner\u2019s final game in a Leafs uniform.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, you know, it happens,\u201d Knies said. \u201cMove on from it. And learn from it. And this year’s a new chapter for us, adding the players we did, and Chief being another year with us, some of the core pieces that we needed to stay and (did). It’s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fast favourite of coach Craig Berube, Knies sees a path to contention through hardnosed, straight-line hockey and is encouraged by gritty off-season additions like Roy, Dakota Joshua, and Michael Pezzetta. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as (Berube) stepped in last year, he kind of changed it up a little bit. I think we played a lot harder, a lot tougher, a lot more physical. I think we’re still making our strides towards that really good championship culture,\u201d Knies said. \u201cThis (past) year was a good step for us, but I think there’s still obviously more improvement that we need. And this summer, I think we did that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HENDERSON, NV \u2014 Matthew Knies was one of the key benefactors of Mitch Marner\u2019s career-best 102-point season in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-130381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}