Toronto Maple Leafs and Matthew Knies Continue To Work Hard on a New Deal
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period was on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio Morning Skate with Scott Laughlin and Gord Stellick and was asked about Matthew Knies. He was asked about Knies, the negotiations with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and whether he should be worried about an offer sheet.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
NHL Rumors: Could Matthew Knies Cost the Toronto Maple Leafs Around $9 Milllion?
Scott Laughlin: “Another busy team as we wrap things up with you here Dave is expected to be Toronto obviously. You’ve got the questions about (Mitch) Marner and (John) Tavares and if they’re coming back, and if so, what’s the term going to look like? What’s the AV going to look like? A lot of speculation recently with regards to Matthew Knies, a restricted free agent coming up this summer. He’s going to need a new contract. Now, we’ve already seen what Doug Armstrong did last summer and it has worked out well for the Blues, to say the least, with (Philip) Broberg and (Dylan) Holloway. You think that, by virtue of what he did, that maybe things open up for a guy like Knies?”
Dave Pagnotta: “Yeah. I mean, at the start of the season, when they had their conversations and discussions, and even going back to the preseason, I kind of wanted to see how the campaign was going to play out. The back and forth options, where do you go full long term, or do you go bridge? What direction do we go in? And I think a lot of it was going to be dependent on how he performed this season.
He’s got 25 goals on the year, not exactly 50 points just yet, but he’s putting up the numbers and the way that he’s played, and he brings a little bit of jam to his game as well, and it compliments their first line quite nicely. So this is going to be a very valuable piece.
They’ve got a lot of cap space right now because, as you mentioned, Marner and Tavares are also up for new deals. So they’ve got a lot of wiggle room to play with, but they’re certainly going to be cognizant of the fact that, yeah the offer sheets that, that we saw last year.
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I’m not anticipating a significant worry across the board because we’ve seen the cap go up. It’s an extra $7.5 million to play with. Four million for every team. So I don’t think Toronto is kind of utilizing that in their back pocket. But the better he performs, and if he does step up even further come playoff time, that’s going to factor into, into their negotiations.
They’ve gone back and forth a few times throughout the season since the start, but it certainly looks like they’re poised to get something done kind of after the fact, even though they’ve continued talks. But he’s an important piece for this club, and he’s going to be someone to watch if he does hit the RFA market come July 1.”
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