Matthew Knies is back in Toronto, but the left wing picture around him looks a lot different now.
After a summer that brought major offseason moves and a top pick in the 2026 draft, the Maple Leafs are heading toward a season with a new kind of buzz. Knies, despite trade rumors, is still in the mix, and that matters because the 23-year-old has already become one of the team’s most important offensive players. Last season, he finished third on the Leafs in scoring with 66 points in 79 games, a career high for the Arizona native, and spent much of the year on the top line.
The wrinkle now is Gavin McKenna. Toronto used the No. 1 overall pick on the left winger, and his resume is already loaded.
In 2024-25, McKenna put up 88 assists and 129 points in 56 games for the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers, then added 38 points in 16 playoff games. He followed that with 51 points in 35 games during one season at Penn State in 2025-26.
That kind of production makes it hard to ignore the possibility that McKenna gets a major role right away. If he comes in looking like a future star, Knies could slide down to the second line.
If Knies keeps building on last season and plays at his highest level yet, he could hold onto the top spot. Right now, it feels like a real coin flip.
The third line, though, doesn’t look like a serious landing spot unless things go badly for Knies. The more realistic competition comes from Easton Cowan, who played his first full season with the Leafs last year and posted 11 goals and 29 points in 66 games. Cowan had a solid year in limited minutes, but he still looks like a long shot to jump Knies or McKenna for a second-line job unless he breaks out in a big way.
If the Leafs had to set their opening-night lineup today, the best guess is Knies starts on the top line and then eventually shifts to the second as McKenna starts flashing franchise-player upside. Toronto has seen this movie before. The last time the club added a No. 1 pick, Auston Matthews arrived in 2016 and became the team’s top-line center and leading scorer in 2016-17.
No matter where he ends up, Knies still looks like a key young piece for the Leafs. And if a move down the lineup does happen, it might not be a setback at all. It could be the kind of push that brings out his best hockey yet.
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