With 5 years left on his $7.75M AAV contract and some young starts starting to push towards the $20M AAV plateau, Knies is certainly entering “steal” territory on this contract. While Knies certainly doesn’t have the skill that a Macklin Celebrini or Kirill Kaprizov has, he’s still a force on the ice and would demand much more if he were a free agent right now.
I love this throwback to Jake McCabe picking the corner from the blueline. He’s a very valuable piece to the puzzle here in Toronto and is highly underrated in the grand scheme of things. Here’s hoping that he has serious chemistry with the teams newest addition, Darren Raddysh, but if they vibe together it will completely change the makeup of the blueline this season.
I honestly don’t believe this is even true. The Maple Leafs get dropped into every rumour for nothing more than the extra attention it brings. The Leafs don’t have the capspace for Laine and while it’s great to add somebody that can score in bunches, I just don’t see the fit in the lineup for him at the moment.