It's time to ask a serious Matthew Knies question to the Maple Leafs

At this point, it's no secret that the Toronto Maple Leafs are at least considering a trade that would send the talented young winger Matthew Knies elsewhere.

He's in all the rumors and speculation and trade ideas put together by reporters and analysts and talking heads. Clearly, there's something real going on here.

At this point, that's not the question any longer. No one is doubting that Knies could get traded this summer.

The question that still needs to be asked is much simpler: Why?

Why are the Maple Leafs considering trading Knies away?

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It's a much harder one to answer, and one that doesn't seem totally clear in digging through all the information that's out there.

Toronto wants to upgrade its defensive group, sure, but they just figured out a sign-and-trade for Darren Raddysh. That's probably the biggest swing they'll take in that direction, and now Leafs fans will wait and see what comes of a potential Morgan Rielly trade.

If Rielly was traded for a forward, could Knies then be traded for a defenseman? Sure, that would at least balance things out, but it's not a given.

There's also the reality that the Maple Leafs are likely to draft a winger, Gavin McKenna, with the No. 1 overall pick. That means there's another high-class winger, and potentially that bumps Knies a rung down the depth chart over time.

But wouldn't a team that wants to contend, like Toronto, want that added firepower and depth? You'd think so.

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Getting rid of Knies doesn't seem to solve any problem. And sure, sometimes players wear out their welcome, but that doesn't seem to have happened here.

It genuinely seems a bit like someone threw out the idea at some point and it simply hasn't gone away.

It's even a new front office with the Maple Leafs now, but somehow the Knies trade suggestion persists.

Maybe it'll all become clearer if they actually pull off a trade. But for now, we're still asking 'Why?', because this doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

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