Matthew Knies’ name popped up in the rumor mill in the days leading up to the trade deadline
Sportsnet: Nick Kypreos on the Real Kyper & Bourne Show talking about the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens, possibly talking about Matthew Knies. Nothing confirmed that it was Knies, but he’s a guy that could bring a significant return back, and would make sense for the Canadiens.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Kypreos: ” Now, are you guys, did you catch wind of Kent Hughes in Montreal.”
Justin Bourne: “What part?”
Kypreos: “About, I guess he had, they all scheduled their post trade deadline press conferences, and he was late because he was working on something …”
Bourne: “Yes, I did hear that.”
Kypreos: “… big. Yeah, now, and I’m telling you what’s out. I’m just telling you what I’m hearing. All right, there is a sense in at least my inner world, that the deal that he was working on was with the Toronto Maple Leafs.”
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Bourne: “Really. That is really shocking, considering how infrequent. So are we talking for some of the guys who left or different guys?”
Kypreos: “All right, this is where we get to spitball now. Okay, what’s going on over there?” (asking Sam McKee)
McKee: “I’m just, I cannot wait the next words that come out of your mouth. I’m giddy over here.”
Kypreos: “Now I think Elliotte was the first to report Matthew, Matthew Knies’ name out there. I had also heard it, and I put him on my trade board at the end of the week. And there is a sense out there that perhaps there was something brewing, brewing around that type of guy.”
Bourne: “So if you’re Montreal, Matthew Knies makes unbelievably perfect sense for them. Big, young, got the you know, different type of guy than what they have.”
Kypreos: “I can tell you that his name was out there with multiple teams. Okay, that’s, that’s the word . And if that’s the case, if you really, really think about it, outside of (Auston) Matthews and (William) Nylander with no-moves, who was out there that could provide the :eafs with a multiply of top, top talent.”
Bourne: “Right, it’s Knies.”
Kypreos: “Yeah, it’s Knies. And again, I’m not confirming that, that, was…”
Bourne: “Only other names, (Easton) Cowan, and that would.”
Kypreos: “I’m not confirming anything. I’m just telling you that’s, that’s the word, and that’s the feel going into this week that if there was something with Kent Hughes going on, a lot of people are pointing to him in the Leafs.”
Bourne: “And would it, would it have been bodies back for the Leafs.”
Kypreos: “Of course.”
Bourne: “So, Kaiden Guhle, and…”
Kypreos: “Yes, whatever it is, whatever it is, they have a tonne, a tonne.”
Bourne: “Yeah, they got that Hage kid on the way.”
Kypreos: “They have a lot. And that’s, that’s the one guy that you, if, if (Leafs GM Brad) Treliving was working on something with Knies, he’s the one guy that could bring you back that type of return.
Bourne: “You wonder if, if it wasn’t Montreal, if it would have happened, I wonder if, like, if your (Treliving), the fear of giving Montreal a player that puts them over the top, you know, it’s, the spotlight would never be brighter than that trade.”
McKee: “It’s, it’s one thing to trade Thomas Plekanec to the Leafs for a one playoff run, or, like a little thing, I can’t even think of other traded they’ve ever made. But to trade one of your seemingly next core guy who’s on a long contract, the first year of a long contract, or is that contract kicked in…”
Kypreos: “$7.5 (million)”
McKee: “… for seven more years to be on a rival team? Yeah, I mean.”
Kypreos: “But can you have flipped it into two or three next blue chip prospects, right? That could turn into someone as important as Knies has developed. And that’s, that’s the name of the game come trade deadline, guys.”
Bourne: “this is what Leafs fans are frustrated about. They wanted to see a shake up. They wanted this, whether it’s Knies or not.”
Kypreos: “Something like that …”
Bourne: “Can still happen.”
Kypreos: “Can still happen. Absolutely. And I think Kent Hughes, when he was referring to something that big that he was working on, I think he did kind of lean towards that it could, it could get picked up again.”
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Bourne: “I think he made a joke like, I’ll tell you one day over a beer or something like that to whoever he was talking to. I had heard those quotes too.”
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