Matthew Knies’ impact with Maple Leafs hitting another level

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They should be kicking themselves.

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If National Hockey League teams were given another shot at the 2021 draft, knowing what they know now, there’s no way Matthew Knies would still be available at No. 57, with the Maple Leafs picking him up deep in the second round.

Knies was the Leafs’ first pick that year, and he might as well have been a first-rounder.

Among players selected in 2021, only 10 have more than Knies’ 62 points. He is ninth on the team in NHL games played with 123 and is seventh with 31 goals. Twenty-one players selected ahead of Knies have not played in an NHL game.

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Only one player taken after Knies — Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman JJ Moser, who went 60th to Arizona — has more points, with 82 in 232 career games. Note that Moser, who is nursing a lower-body injury and hasn’t played since mid-December, has played in 109 more games than Knies.

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The Leafs have their big producers in a trio of stars in captain Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander. Assuming Marner re-signs with the Leafs — and almost every observer thinks he will — that’s not going to change.

We don’t know that Knies will flirt with 100 points in an NHL season as the team’s superstars, but there’s no doubt that his power and hands make him a unique player on the Leafs roster.

“Very fearless,” coach Craig Berube told reporters in Philadelphia after Knies scored the winner in Toronto’s 3-2 win Tuesday night. “Goes to the net hard, skates hard, he’s hard to handle. That’s how I look at it. He challenges D-men with his speed and skill, and he’s heavy. He’s getting in there.”

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At 22, Knies continues to realize how his 6-foot-3, 227-pound frame can impact the game, especially during the hash marks in the offensive zone. With further maturity and experience, Knies has the potential to reach a level where he dominates more often than not.

“He’s a house,” Leafs forward John Tavares said. “He’s a tough guy to move, physically mature for his age and has really soft hands. He’s really shown that with his ability to handle the puck in tight areas and certainly around the net. It’s a good combination for us, and he has been a great contributor.”

When the Leafs selected Knies 3 1/2 years ago, he was coming off a couple of good seasons with Tri-City in the United States Hockey League. John Lilley, then the Leafs’ director of amateur scouting, credited amateur scouts Scott Bell and Tony Martino with bringing Knies to the club’s attention. Bell remains with the Leafs today.

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Knies followed the draft with two fine years at the University of Minnesota, and the Leafs had a bigger idea they were on to something when he made his NHL debut late in the 2022-23 season.

Knies’ 16 goals in 40 games is one more than he scored as a rookie a year ago, when he had 15 goals in 80 games. Already, he has become a master at deflecting the puck, perfecting a skill that he spends time working on in practice.

That’s what Knies told reporters late Tuesday when asked about his game as a whole that should lead to further optimism in Leafs Nation.

“It’s just going to be a lot more simple,” Knies said. “I’m winning a lot more puck battles and finding myself open around the net, and that’s the kind of player I need to be, right?

“Stay open around the net and find ways to get pucks in, and I just found a way to do that. I’m just going to keep doing it.”

Almost every NHL team that passed on Knies in the summer of 2021 wants the opposite.

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