2026 NHL Draft: Trading Players to Get More Picks

Yesterday I talked about what it could realistically look like if Toronto were to trade down from their first overall pick. What teams make the most sense with the picks they have to send back to Toronto, and getting a rough idea of what specific combination of picks the Leafs could get out of it.

The short answer was... nothing that looked even remotely likely, even if you could try and think up some logic for why some teams may want to.

Today, I want to do something different. I want to look at some of the players the Leafs have under contract but have been rumoured to want to trade, or where the player themselves wants to be traded, or neither of those is true and it's just a guy who has been strongly mentioned in various trade rumours whose name rhymes with Knatthew Mies.

Matthew Knies

I'll start by saying that there is an inherent problem with the idea of trading away Knies, at least when it comes to trading him for picks. Even if a team blows your socks off with a ton of high picks or prospects who were drafted high that would clearly set up the Leafs to be better in the long run... the Leafs are in a position where they are looking at needing to be better in the more immediate term. As in, the next 1-2 seasons. They're not rebuilding.

That's not to say a Knies trade doesn't make any sense, or that it won't happen. Since his name has come up in so many trade rumours going back to the last trade deadline, and since I've heard more rumours about this off-season even after Treliving was fired and replaced with Chayka, Knies is almost unquestioningly the best trade asset Toronto has. So we may as well start with him.

In fact, some insiders have recently said that rather than Chayka pulling Knies off of the trade market, he is exploring it even more. There are so many relevant rumours and apparently interested teams, he could have his own article. So I've separated the teams I've seen come up the most when it comes to the Leafs potentially getting other high pick(s) or prospects as the main pieces being involved, I'll focus on him more getting other current NHL players in tomorrow's article (St Louis, Seattle, New Jersey, etc).

I think you can view a Knies trade to be in a similar place as the Leafs trading the first overall pick. It's not likely to happen unless a team really knocks Chayka's socks off with an offer. Knies is a known commodity, he's a valuable kind of player that every team wants, he's far from being too old still and he's locked into a long term deal already. He is coming off a relatively down year, not necessarily in terms of points but in everything else with some rough play not helped by a nagging injury he played through. But despite all that, he still is being linked to some potentially really big returns.

But that means Chayka can absolutely shoot for the moon. Why not? If every team turns him down he can hang on to Knies and wait for this year's deadline, or next year's off-season. He'll still be young, cost controlled, and the kind of player teams love while also potentially having a better season than this one, so he could be worth more on the trade market.

So, considering the rumoured trade returns that was agreed upon with Montreal and another that was reportedly talked about with Buffalo, that would have to be a lot.

For reference, the rumoured return from Montreal was:

• Alexander Zharovsky, a 6'2" winger who's only 19 years old and is coming off a huge breakout season where he won KHL rookie of the year after putting up 16 goals and 42 points in 59 games which is better than the U19 seasons by Michkov, Kaprizov, Kuznetsov, Tarasenko, and Panarin in their U19 seasons in the KHL. He is a legitimate piece.
• Bryce Pickford, a 6'1" right shot defenseman who's 20 years old and coming off a season where he had 45 goals and 83 points in just 55 games. I may not value him as a prospect (at all) but that doesn't mean he is a nothing throw-in.
• Two first round picks, this year being a late first. Next year's would be determined and presumably come with some kind of lottery/top 5 protection or something.

The Sabres also reportedly talked a lot with Toronto but never had a deal that was agreed upon. According to a rumour Dreger reported, the Sabres offered a similar package as what they had offered to St Louis when they tried trading for Robert Thomas. Dreger described it as a "four-pronged package" with each asset being roughly valued as a first-round pick or equivalent piece. That roughly lines up with what the Canadiens package wound up being before it fell through.

So if a team wants to pull Knies out of Toronto, they're going to have to come up with a package that is a) better suited to helping them be a better, more competitive team this year in some regard, and b) probably a better overall package in assets than either what Montreal or Buffalo had been offering. There is no reason for Chayka to accept less. If the Leafs are going to make a potential blockbuster trade that brings in assets that helps them turn around into another contender, a potential Knies trade is it.

Something like...

Blackhawks

Chicago has (reportedly) really wanted Knies for the past 2-3 years, and I've heard Knies and Chicago's fourth overall pick mentioned by more than just one or two insiders and draft guys in the past few weeks.

In fact, I've seen some insiders say things like the 4th overall pick would be "the centerpiece" of a Knies trade, implying more than just the 4th overall pick coming back. So that would be one great centerpiece where they could get one of Stenberg (elite winger who could play in the NHL next year), Malhotra (top center in the draft probably not ready for next year) or whoever Toronto likes as the top defenseman in this draft (Chase Reid, Carson Carels, or the correct answer Malte Gustafsson).

The irony of me saying before that "the problem with Toronto picking either McKenna or Stenberg is that what they really need is both" and then winding up with both would be very, very funny to me.

For the other assets, if I were Toronto I would ask for one from the following groups of assets:

• One of their young NHL defense prospects who have NHL experience (Levshunov, Rinzel, Korchinski)
• Another decent prospect or young player that is a first-round value (Oliver Moore, Nick Lardis, Roman Kantserov, Sacha Boisvert, or the correct answer Vaclav Nestrasil who I wanted SO BAD LAST YEAR BRING HIM TO ME CHAYKA!!!)
• One or two of their three first round picks they have for next year's draft (their own, a top 12 protected pick from Edmonton, and Florida's unprotected 1st).

Canadiens

But there are other teams who were reportedly very in on Knies at the deadline and made big offers. The one that Toronto apparently accepted, under Treliving, but fucked up in filing at the right time was Montreal's. The Habs' GM was apparently so mad that Treliving fucked up filing it on time that he reportedly yelled he should be fired in front of Treliving and Pelley. Some of that yelling included a rant that they'd want to revisit it this summer, so they're likely still willing to do a trade like that.

I can keep this shorter since that almost-trade that didn't quite happen makes a lot of the outline for another deal pretty clear. So I'll just say that if I were Chayka, I'm asking for more now. I still want Zharovsky and those two first rounders, but I'm asking either Reinbacher or Hage instead of Pickford. The picks can stay the same too. If they don't want to give up that much for Knies, we don't have to want to give up Knies for less. Easy as.

Sabres

Buffalo was also apparently pretty aggressively pursuing Knies at the deadline, were also making a multi-asset offer. Like Montreal, they don't have a high first round pick like Chicago does – it's now the 20th overall this year – and also like Montreal they could trade their first rounder next year but will probably put protection on it, and if they repeat their season to at least be a playoff team it wouldn't that high a pick either.

What Buffalo does have are some young NHL players or prospects. They have Konsta Helenius who looked very good for them in the playoffs and was a pretty high pick, plus some much younger players and/or lower tier prospects like Isak Rosen, Peyton Krebs, Jack Quinn, Jiri Kulich, Radim Mrtka, and Luke Osburn.

They did have a relatively young NHL defenseman in Michael Kesselring who I thought may be interesting because he was in trade rumours already, but he just got dealt to San Jose so Buffalo could trade up from 27th to 20th this year.

Basically, they can't really put together as good a package.

Mammoth

This was news to me, but in researching this article apparently the Mammoth are another team linked to Knies as a young, middling team on the upswing who is looking to beef up their roster with quality young players already in the NHL. You know, the same thing the Leafs also probably want. So what assets do they have to make a similar four-prong pitch, or something of equivalent value?

Their other asset groups to ask about:

• Draft picks – 19th overall pick this year, they have their 2027 1st
• Top prospects - Dmitri Simashev is who I'd desperately want but the reason why Utah wants to trade Durzi is to clear the way for him, so other than that there's Caleb Desnoyers, Daniil But, Tij Iginla, Cole Beaudoin, and Max Psenicka.
• I did see some rumours (not from any insider to be clear, just a guy on Twitter) about a deal being worked on to send Durzi back to Toronto. He's a 27 year old right hand defenseman who has a $6M cap hit the next two seasons, and would fit the puck moving offensive defenseman the team apparently wanted. That would also very much count as something to help the Leafs right away. But with them already having traded for Raddysh I think it's less likely.

Morgan Rielly

The longest tenured Leaf has had rumours surrounding him for a while, that the Leafs want to move on from him given his age (32), performance decline, and to better use his $7.5 million cap hit over the next four seasons. Those rumours haven't included much speculation on what the Leafs could get back in a trade, because it will be almost impossible to even guess at that until Rielly does agree to waive his NMC and submits a list of teams he's okay to be traded to.

The few bits related to a return I've seen have either involved trading him to a team who has their own bad contract coming back (like Darnell Nurse... which, no thanks) or a package of mid-round picks (in this case, a 2nd and 3rd) or a mid-level prospect. Again, I wouldn't put any stock in any of that, but if he does get traded there is at least the possibility they could get some kind of draft pick back.

Brandon Carlo

Carlo didn't have a great season last year, but was pretty solid for Boston and for his one playoff run with the Leafs. He has one year remaining on his contract with only a $3.485 million cap hit. His size, position, and pretty low cap hit would make him a valuable trade asset even with last season in mind.

Just like with Rielly, I wouldn't put too much stock in any rumours about a specific return that's been actually discussed by the Leafs with any potential suitors. But a lot of the hypotheticals being thrown out has the framework around a 2nd round pick and a "respectable, mid-tier prospect".

Anthony Stolarz

Well... this section made a lot more sense before the Woll to Philly trade already happened. I still want to keep it because I have a strange feeling that Chayka may not stop at just Woll, but could also deal Stolarz if he felt the price was right and had a good enough replacement for him.

The reason why is because there are other teams already trying to make a move for goalies. Cossa was heavily rumoured to be traded to Edmonton until that didn't happen, and now he's linked to Utah. Stuart Skinner, Jordan Binnington, and Sam Montembeault have also been mentioned, or even potentially Connor Hellebuyck. Stolarz isn't be the biggest name on the list of goalies in these rumours, but he's not the worst either. Whoever loses out on the better names and is more desperate (cough Edmonton cough).

The teams that have apparently been said to be interested (grain of salt considering lack of real sources) include: the Oilers, Senators, and Panthers.

For the Oilers, the rumoured (salt) deal would involve Toronto taking back an NHL depth piece or a mid-tier prospect/mid-round pick. It would be a similar return with Ottawa, either a mid-round draft pick (3rd or 4th rounder) or similar value prospect. Same thing with Florida, though the rumour with them went as high as a 2nd rounder or a depth roster player.

Various Depth Players

Then there are three of Toronto's depth players that have also been rumoured to either want a trade out of Toronto, or that Toronto is rumoured to want to trade them... or both.

Nick Robertson has had some grumbles about him for the past couple of years. He was mentioned as a piece in that potential blockbuster with the Flyers for Drysdale but... salt. He's also been connected to Dallas, maybe only because his brother is there? One rumour (heavy salt) said Toronto could get a 2nd round pick in that deal and sure I'd love that but... (bigger heap of salt).

San Jose, Edmonton and Pittsburgh are all apparently interested in Simon Benoit. The going rate for him on his own was a mid round pick, like a 4th rounder. Edmonton apparently kicked tires on him and McMann as a package deal at the deadline before the Leafs sent Bobby to Seattle instead, so there may still be some interest there to replace the style of defense Nurse brought at a much bigger price tag.

So looking at all of these, it is not inconceivable for Toronto to wind up with another pick or two at this draft. They could also acquire picks in future drafts instead, and use those assets at this year's deadline depending on how they're doing in the standings. They could also focus more on bringing back current NHLers or young prospects who are already pretty close to the NHL if they want more immediate help for this coming season. But I'm the prospect guy so I'm hoping they do get another pick or two in some of these deals, if they make any at the draft. Just throw me an extra bone, Chayka, it doesn't have to be ALL draft picks coming back in these deals!

Thanks for reading!

I put a lot of work into my prospect articles here, both for the draft and Toronto's prospects. I do it as a fun hobby for me, and I'd probably do it in some capacity even if PPP completely ceased to exist. But if you like reading my work, some support would go a long way! I pay for a few streaming services (CHL, NCAA, USHL, the occasional TSN options for international tournaments that are broadcast) to be able to reliably watch these prospects in good quality streams. I also pay for some prospect-specific resources, such as tracking data and scouting reports from outlets like Elite Prospects, Future Considerations, McKeen's Hockey, The Athletic, and more.

Being able to get paid for this helps me dedicate more time and resources to it, rather than to second/third jobs. And whatever money I make here, a lot of I reinvest back into my prospect work through in those streaming and scouting services. Like I said, I'd be doing whatever I can afford for this anyway, so any financial help I get through this is greatly appreciated!