The Toronto Maple Leafs sent Matthew Knies to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday in a six-player blockbuster, landing Kirill Marchenko on the eve of the season. Fans immediately went digging through Knies’ history in Toronto, and what they found was striking.
According to a widely shared post on the r/hockey forum, Knies has now been traded, or nearly traded, by every general manager he has played under with the Maple Leafs.
The first attempt allegedly came in 2022, when Kyle Dubas is said to have proposed sending Knies to Chicago in a package for Brandon Hagel, only for team president Brendan Shanahan to veto it. The second came at the 2026 trade deadline, when Brad Treliving agreed a deal with Montreal that was submitted to the league one minute too late and was therefore denied. John Chayka completed the hat trick on Monday.
Some fans went looking for a darker explanation.
“Wonder if he’s got a spooky skeleton they’re not telling us,” one wrote, while another asked whether there was “something wrong or toxic about Knies behind the scenes.”
Why did the Maple Leafs trade Matthew Knies?
The actual reasoning looks a lot more ordinary. Marchenko signed a six-year, $75 million extension worth $12.5 million a season as part of the deal, and Chayka clearly believes he’s the better player. Knies, on a six-year, $46.5 million contract at $7.75 million, was also the most valuable trade chip available to a club that had left itself squeezed against the cap after a summer of spending.
There’s also the matter of who acquired him in the first place. Chayka has spent his opening months in Toronto systematically dismantling the roster he inherited, changing nearly half the lineup, the entire coaching staff and much of the front office. Knies was a Dubas draft pick and a Treliving extension.
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What makes the timing awkward is that Chayka said the opposite 11 days ago. Asked at the start of training camp about the summer-long rumours, he insisted Knies was staying and pinned the speculation on his predecessors.
“Previous discussions or previous work that was done in the previous management group, maybe that’s bled over into these discussions,” Chayka said. “From our side, we’ve been consistent with Matthew, that he’s an important part of our team.”
Knies is 23 and was drafted 57th overall in 2021. He posted 29 goals and 29 assists in 78 games in his breakout season before signing the extension that has now followed him to Columbus.
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