Matthew Knies didn’t plan to pack on 10 pounds in the offseason.
He was as surprised as anyone to learn he now weighed 227 pounds, making him the heaviest Toronto Maple Leafs skater this season, slightly edging out Ryan Reaves (225), Morgan Rielly (225) and Jani Hakanpää (225).
“Honestly I was not necessarily shocked,” Knies said, “but I didn’t really see it coming, I guess.”
Knies will be the team’s youngest player too, barring an Easton Cowan appearance that seems unlikely at this point. Still 21, for a few more days anyway, Knies is more than a year younger than Nick Robertson, even if he doesn’t look it.
It’s the age, physical tools and upside that combine to make Knies the most intriguing Leaf for the 2024-25 season, a breakout candidate and someone the front office should rush to extend as soon as possible.
Knies’ ceiling doesn’t feel anywhere near established. He has high hopes for himself and doesn’t shy away from talking about it.
Asked about his goals for his sophomore NHL season, Knies said, “I just want to play both special teams. I want to play at the top of the lineup. I want to play with the best players. I want to contribute. I want to be a player that they can count on in any situation, any time of the game. That’s the kind of player I want to be. I still think I have steps to take to become that, but I think it’s definitely trending upwards and hopefully that’s the player I am one day.”
That player would look something like Mikko Rantanen, the Colorado Avalanche’s 6-foot-4 star winger, if Knies had his way.
“He’d be someone I’d love to be like,” said Knies. “I don’t think I’m at his level by any means, but I think that’s the kind of player that I want to be.”
Rantanen has averaged 48.5 goals and 104.5 points the past two seasons.
It speaks to Knies’ ambition that he has a player of that calibre — an NHL superstar — in his sights. And while it seems unlikely Knies will reach those heights, who can really say for sure?
The ‘unit’
Knies vacationed through Europe with family in the offseason and then got to work with Cal Dietz, his old strength and conditioning coach at the University of Minnesota, for two solid months.
Power and speed were the priorities.
“Man, I’ve been here 22 years, seen a hundred NHLers come through my program for hockey,” Dietz said. “He is a unit in the best way possible.”
That’s how Dietz often refers to Knies, as a “unit.” “His power and speed were the best I had in the room, because he’s like 227 (pounds),” said Dietz. “When you see him explode, you were like, ‘Oh wow, that’s the real deal.'”
Dietz was impressed with the Leafs’ commitment to helping Knies — and Dietz, by extension — along. Louis Rojas, the team’s head strength and conditioning coach, visited Minnesota for three days to work with Knies and Dietz on fine-tuning a plan to address Knies’ weaknesses.
The Leafs, for instance, wanted Knies to improve his first step. They attacked that, Knies explained, through “a lot of isometric stuff where you’re holding a position as long as you can.”
Bruins defenceman Hampus Lindholm controls the puck as Matthew Knies closes in during Game 3 of the first round of the 2023 playoffs. (John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)
“It made me a lot quicker, a lot faster, a great first step,” Knies said.
Dietz referred to the $20,000 running machine at the university’s state-of-the-art gym and various exercises that Knies would roll through while encountering all kinds of resistance.
There was a plan to improve Knies’ agility on the ice, his ability to stop and then change directions quickly. On the ice, Knies endeavoured with Paul Matheson, the Leafs’ skating coach, to keep his posture more upright.
“Once I keep my posture in a stable position, I think I have a better stride and I’m quicker from that,” Knies said.
‘Pro mindset’
Dietz thought Knies still had tons of room to grow, literally. Knies was a late bloomer physically, he noted. “I think that’s probably why the (U.S.) national program didn’t take him,” Dietz said. “Because they would have had to if he was as big as he is now.”
In addition to Rojas, Dietz said the Leafs’ nutritionist (officially, their “lead performance dietician”), Margaret Hughes, also came out to Minnesota for a visit with Knies. “I deal with a lot of NHL teams,” Dietz said. “But no one’s ever sent a nutritionist someplace to make sure an athlete’s eating correctly.”
Dietz, who trained Knies during his two seasons with the Gophers, noticed a new level of maturity this past offseason, a “pro mindset” as he described it. It was subtle stuff, like Knies insisting to the group of NHLers he rented a house with (and trained alongside) to make a run to the grocery store to stock up on healthy foods. It was his attention to detail.
You might call that the “Tavares bump.”
“Living with Johnny (Tavares) opened my eyes to clean, healthy food,” said Knies, who stayed with the then-Leafs captain and his family early last season before moving into his own place downtown.
It was on Tavares’ advice that Knies installed a water purifier (a Brita filter, essentially) in his new home.
Knies no longer inhales Chick-fil-A sandwiches like he did when he was still playing hockey at the University of Minnesota. He prefers the healthy meals the team prepares for him, particularly the Korean salmon and Soba noodles.
Knies has also been dipping his toe into the Toronto restaurant scene. His teammates recently sent him to PAI, a Thai hot spot, and he’s grown quite fond of Sugo, a William Nylander favourite.
“I’m a big Italian fan,” Knies said. “I love pasta and chicken parm and stuff like that.”
More minutes, more responsibility
Knies will absolutely play a larger, more consequential role for the Leafs this season. His minutes are going to go up, maybe way up, from the 13 and change he averaged as a rookie last season.
Not only will Knies, absent any meaningful competition (with Tyler Bertuzzi now playing in Chicago), likely spend the season on Auston Matthews’ left wing, he’s also a good bet to get his wish and play more regularly on both special teams units.
Knies totalled just 50 minutes on the power play last season and only 23 minutes on the penalty kill.
It’s almost shocking, given his size and finishing ability, that Knies has yet to score a single power-play goal in the NHL. That should change this season, now that he’s slated to have a net-front gig on the Leafs’ No. 2 power-play unit from Day 1.
Even a little power-play production will help Knies inch closer to 20 goals, a mark that feels inevitable after last season when he scored 15, with minimal power-play time, while enduring a drought of 17 games at one point.
Can Knies eventually become a perennial 25-goal guy for the Leafs? Is 30 even in the cards?
It might be, especially if Knies becomes more willing (and able) to shoot the puck. He totalled 115 shots in 80 games last year, barely more than Noah Gregor managed as a fourth-liner in 63 games (110). The more he gets to the net, he knows, the better.
And a quicker, more powerful version of Knies should be even more menacing as a puck-hunter for Matthews and Mitch Marner on the Leafs’ top line. That trio, thanks mostly to Matthews and Marner, posted the No. 1 goals-for percentage (a whopping 67 percent) of any NHL trio that logged at least 400 minutes last season.
How potent will that unit be if Knies takes another step? And what do the Leafs have if, or perhaps when, that leap inevitably comes? A power forward who scores, drives play and even kills penalties, and someone who has already demonstrated his comfort in playoff hockey. A very valuable player, essentially.
Which makes you wonder why the Leafs aren’t rushing to extend Knies’ contract ASAP in the hopes of procuring value before Knies really takes off. The upcoming season will be the final year in Knies’ entry-level contract, after which he is slated to become a restricted free agent.
From the sounds of it, there hasn’t been much in the way of extension talks just yet.
Knies will turn 22 later this month.
Learning to play the guitar has helped him adjust to the loneliness that sometimes comes with living on his own. He’s fiddling with country songs mostly — Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, that kind of thing.
“I got close with the guys too, so it’s easier to go hang out with them and just grab some food with them,” he said. “I got a lot more comfortable, for sure, in the city.”
And, increasingly, a lot more comfortable on the ice.
