The fact that the Montreal Canadiens open the 2026-27 NHL regular season on Tuesday night at the Toronto Maple Leafs comes with an additional brand of irony after Monday’s big news.
The Maple Leafs got Kirill Marchenko in a trade that sent Matthew Knies to the Columbus Blue Jackets, and it turns out the Habs wanted Marchenko, too.
A bunch of teams did, really, but it was Toronto that pulled the deal off.
Marchenko’s status to debut on Tuesday remains in flux due to visa processing, but at some point, he’s going to take the ice for the Maple Leafs and be a star.
The Canadiens will only be able to watch after they were unable to pull off a deal for the speedy, skilled winger.
Why Didn’t Canadiens Get Kirill Marchenko?
It basically sounds like the Canadiens, and every other team, were unable to beat the Maple Leafs’ offer.
That’s because Toronto had Matthew Knies to deal away, and no one else did, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Knies is a 23-year old winger on an affordable contract who didn’t have a no-trade clause. It simply made him the perfect target for Columbus.
“Montreal was aggressive all summer, trying to make it work,” Friedman wrote in his new 32 Thoughts column before Opening Night. “But no one they offered excited Columbus as much as Knies. They were creative at the end, trying to involve third teams to either eat Blue Jackets salary or include more palatable players. As for the extension, I do think the Canadiens would have done the six years, $12.5 million AAV Toronto did — even if it altered their tight salary structure. Who else was in there? Boston, the Islanders, Seattle, Tampa Bay. No doubt others. But Knies was impossible to beat.”
That’s a bunch of teams listed there at the end who were unable to beat the Knies offer. It shows just what Columbus thought of Knies, but it also shows what Toronto thought of Marchenko that he was the guy they were finally willing to follow through on with a Knies trade after so many rumors.
So Now What?
The good news for the Canadiens is that they were a strong team a season ago despite being quite young, and at least they didn’t blow up their core to bring in Marchenko.
They can run it back with a similar group, and that does have legitimate potential to be an impressive squad in the Eastern Conference.
They certainly have a great chance to set the tone in the opening game of the season if they can go to Toronto and put on a show. Even if they can’t, though, it’s a long season which will give their talent plenty of chance to shine through.
The Canadiens should be a serious contender this season, even without Marchenko.
Why Canadiens Didn’t Make Trade for Kirill Marchenko