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The 1-minute reason Maple Leafs didn't trade Matthew Knies to Canadiens

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The 1-minute reason Maple Leafs didn't trade Matthew Knies to Canadiens originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs nearly traded Matthew Knies to the Montreal Canadiens.

That fact, which was reported earlier this week by NHL insider David Pagnotta, was confirmed on the latest 32 Thoughts podcast by Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

Evidently, the teams had agreed on the framework of a deal before the 2026 NHL trade deadline in March.

The trade never happened, though, and Friedman also revealed a shocking reason why.

According to Friedman, the deal was submitted at 3:01 p.m.

For those keeping score at home, the deadline was 3 p.m.

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If that's true, it's absolutely bonkers.

One minute difference between a franchise-changing trade going through, or not?

Knies is a 23-year old, power winger on a long-term contract. Most teams in the NHL would be more than happy to have him.

The Habs are a young bunch, and he would've fit their competitive timeline perfectly.

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By the same token, it would've been painful to see the Maple Leafs give up on the youthful Knies just because the season wasn't going as expected. They've still got him under contract for a long time to turn things around with him on the roster.

If only a minute separated deal from no deal, that's a pretty consequential 60 seconds.

The Maple Leafs could still end up trading Knies, to any team that wants him, including Montreal. But that's less certain than an agreed-upon deal that needed to go into the queue. 

So for now, Knies is still a player for the Maple Leafs, until someone can actually get a deal done in time to change that.

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