Matthew Knies and the Toronto Maple Leafs will be on the same ice on Tuesday night.
They won’t be on the same team, though. The Leafs made sure of that with a trade on the eve of this season.
So instead, Knies will be hosting his former team on Tuesday. He plays for the Columbus Blue Jackets now, and that’s where Toronto is for their game on Oct. 20.
It’s the first time that Knies will suit up against the team that traded him less than a month ago.
There will certainly be all sorts of odd emotions, but Knies is doing his best to move forward with the Blue Jackets.
Of course, he was asked plenty about this matchup in the lead-up to Tuesday night.
Matthew Knies on Trade Shock
Knies wasn’t totally shocked by the trade, it turns out.
That makes sense, because the rumor mill had swirled around his name for months before he was finally dealt.
“In this summer it just came up over and over and just felt like it was something they needed to do,” Knies told TSN of the trade rumors involving him leaving the Maple Leafs. “Yeah, I’m here now and that’s all I have to worry about.”
Knies was on a relatively affordable contract and was a much more tradeable asset than pretty much anyone else on Toronto’s roster.
That made it tough for him to feel settled as the Maple Leafs struggled through a bumpy 2025-26 season. There were rumors before the trade deadline, and then they started again when the season ended.
“I wish I could’ve experienced my time there a little bit longer,” Knies told TSN.
Now, instead, he’s trying to learn his new home in Columbus.
Why Maple Leafs Traded Matthew Knies
The Leafs decided they wanted more offensive firepower and went in a direction different from Knies’ power forward game.
In acquiring Kirill Marchenko from the Blue Jackets, they got one of the NHL’s fastest skaters, and they signed him to a contract extension, too.
Knies hadn’t really done anything wrong, but it’s almost like Toronto had long since convinced themselves that Knies would eventually be traded. Even the transition to a new front office didn’t end the Knies trade rumors.
It all became even more headline-grabbing when they traded Knies the night before their 2026-27 season began, but the reality was that this had been a long time coming.
Knies may not have deserved to be traded, but that’s not always how things work in the NHL, and so now he suits up for the Blue Jackets.
Matthew Knies Shares His Side Of Maple Leafs Trade