Maple Leafs' concerning injury problem grows with Matthew Knies update

The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced that top winger Matthew Knies will miss Tuesday night’s matchup against the St. Louis Blues with a lower-body injury. He is considered day-to-day and joins a laundry list of injuries in Toronto that also includes Auston Matthews, Brandon Carlo, Chris Tanev and Anthony Stolarz.

Interestingly, Knies’ injury will bring the Leafs up to $36M in cap space on the injury list, nearly 40 percent of their total cap, per James Mirtle of The Athletic.

Matthew Knies' injury interrupts his strong start to the season

Knies, Toronto’s star winger, will join the club’s top center and starting goaltender on the sideline. He has been heavily leaned on over the course of the year, averaging over 20 minutes of ice time through 19 games so far. Knies has rewarded that deployment with a career year early on. He has five goals and 22 points on the year, enough to rank third on the team in scoring behind William Nylander (26) and John Tavares (24).

Knies was well-due for the strong start. He has assumed the role of Matthews’ handcuff after century-scorer Mitch Marner moved to the Vegas Golden Knights this summer. Knies posted 58 points, split evenly, in 78 games from a second-line role last season. That performance was itself a step up from his standout rookie year, when he scored 15 goals and 35 points in 80 games.

Tavares and Nylander will take over the top line with Matthews and Knies on the shelf. Next to them will again be shoot-first winger Nicholas Robertson, while Matias Maccelli will return to a top-six role behind him. Robertson, Maccelli and rookie Easton Cowan will be the beneficiaries of Knies’ ice time for the duration of his absence.