Maple Leafs Marchenko Trade: Knies to Columbus in Six-Player Deal

The Maple Leafs Marchenko trade is done

The Maple Leafs Marchenko trade is official. On Monday, one day before the 2026-27 opener against Montreal, Toronto acquired right winger Kirill Marchenko, left winger Miles Wood and goaltender Elvis Merzlikins from the Columbus Blue Jackets for left winger Matthew Knies, forward Steven Lorentz, defenceman Emil Andrae and a conditional 2027 second-round pick. Columbus retained 18 per cent of Merzlikins' salary.

Toronto then signed Marchenko to a six-year, $75-million extension, a $12.5-million average annual value that begins in 2027-28 and runs through 2032-33. He plays this season on the final year of his current deal at $3.85 million.

It is the biggest move of John Chayka's first summer as general manager, and it arrived about 26 hours before puck drop at Scotiabank Arena. The club that finished eighth in the Atlantic with 78 points last season has now swapped out the most popular young skater it had left.

Full trade details

Here is exactly what moved, per the clubs' announcements and PuckPedia's trade record:

• To Toronto: RW Kirill Marchenko (26), LW Miles Wood (31), G Elvis Merzlikins (32, Columbus retains 18 per cent)
• To Columbus: LW Matthew Knies (23), F Steven Lorentz, D Emil Andrae, conditional 2027 second-round pick

Two footnotes matter. Wood had been waived by Columbus on Saturday and cleared on Sunday, so Toronto can assign him to the Toronto Marlies without exposing him again. Merzlikins had shoulder surgery in August, has no public return date and is expected to go straight to long-term injured reserve. Neither player was acquired to change Tuesday's lineup. Both were part of the cost of getting the deal across the line.

Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell said talks with Toronto had been on and off for weeks and picked back up on Monday after reports of a possible deal went public. He also indicated there were no serious talks with other clubs, because Columbus wanted NHL players back and Toronto was the team that could supply them.

Who Kirill Marchenko is

Marchenko is a 6-foot-3 right-shot winger from Russia, drafted by Columbus in the second round in 2018. He has led the Blue Jackets in goals in each of the past three seasons, 81 goals across 233 games. He scored 74 points in 2024-25 and followed it with 27 goals and 67 points in 76 games last season, second on the team in scoring.

What makes him different from most big wingers is pace. He carries the puck through the neutral zone rather than chipping it in, and he beats defenders off the rush. That is the profile Chayka and head coach Jim Hiller have described wanting since camp opened, and it is not what Knies was. Knies won battles along the wall and went to the net. Marchenko is the one who arrives there with the puck.

We tracked this Marchenko trade interest when it went public over the weekend. At the time, the question was whether Toronto could meet Waddell's insistence on NHL-ready players. The answer turned out to be yes, and the player was Knies.

What Toronto gave up in Matthew Knies

Knies is 23 and just finished a career-best season: 23 goals and 66 points in 79 games while battling injuries. He was the homegrown power forward on Auston Matthews' left side, a 2021 draft pick who did the physical work Toronto's forward group has historically avoided.

He also carried the best contract on the roster. Knies signed for six years and $46.5 million in June 2025, a $7.75-million cap hit through 2030-31 with no trade protection. As we argued after deadline day, that contract looked like Toronto's most valuable piece of paper once wingers like Drake Batherson and Ryan Leonard crossed $10 million. Columbus now owns it.

Waddell's statement in the Blue Jackets' release called Knies "a big, strong power forward who combines tough, hard-nosed physical play with outstanding offensive skills." Columbus gets five more years of that at a price Toronto just paid $4.75 million a season more to replace.

What the trade does to the lineup

The natural slot is obvious. Marchenko replaces Knies on the top line with Matthews, with Jack Roslovic — who won the right-wing job in camp — the most likely candidate to flip to his off side or drop into the middle six. Monday's final practice before the trade had Knies, Matthews and Roslovic together, Gavin McKenna with John Tavares and William Nylander, and Easton Cowan, Colton Sissons and Nick Paul on the third line.

Whether Marchenko is in the lineup on Tuesday is not settled. The trade came so late that his visa clearance was still pending on Monday night, and Hiller's lines will not be confirmed until the morning skate. If he does dress, 10 of the 20 players in Toronto's lineup will be making their Maple Leafs regular-season debut.

Sergei Bobrovsky is expected to start in goal regardless. Merzlikins changes nothing about Tuesday's crease and very little about October's.

What the Maple Leafs said

Chayka framed the whole roster, not just the trade, around standards. "It's the Toronto Maple Leafs, expectations are high," he said, per TSN. "They should be. We're certainly not asking anybody to lower their standards."

He was also candid about the risk of turning over this much of a lineup at once. Chayka said the uncertainty is getting a lot of new faces on the same page against a difficult early schedule, and that if the group can get acclimated through November, it should have a good season. That is a GM telling you October might be messy.

Chayka is scheduled to address the trade in more detail on Tuesday morning ahead of the opener.

The cap picture in one paragraph

This season, Toronto saves $3.9 million by swapping Knies' $7.75 million for Marchenko's $3.85 million, then gives much of it back by absorbing Wood's full $2.5-million hit and the retained portion of Merzlikins. Lorentz and Andrae leaving also comes off the books. Next season is the real bill: Marchenko's $12.5 million starts in 2027-28, making him the second-highest-paid Leaf behind Matthews' $13.25 million. We break down the full contract picture and the 2027-28 math in a separate piece.

How the trade came together

This did not come out of nowhere. Marchenko's name had been in the market for months, and reporting over the summer indicated he had asked Columbus for a trade. Waddell's public position was that he was not actively shopping the winger, that he would listen, and that he did not want a package built on futures. Columbus intends to be a playoff team this season, so the return had to help now.

That framing narrowed the field quickly. Several clubs were linked, Montreal among them, but few had a young, established NHL forward on a long, affordable contract they were willing to move. Toronto did. Chayka had said in July that a Knies trade was not probable, and the club spent camp insisting it was not shopping him. Then Friedman reported over the weekend that Toronto had been trying to keep its Marchenko interest quiet, and by Monday afternoon the framework was in place.

The extension was the other half of the negotiation. Trading a 23-year-old signed through 2030-31 for a player one season from unrestricted free agency would have been indefensible without term coming back. Toronto and Marchenko's camp agreed on six years before the deal was announced, which is why the trade and the contract landed within minutes of each other.

What's next

The immediate questions are logistical. Does Marchenko's paperwork clear in time for Montreal? Where does Roslovic land? Is Wood a Marlie by the weekend? The larger question takes months: whether a 26-year-old who scores 27 to 31 goals a year on a middling Columbus team becomes a 35-goal player beside Matthews.

That is the bet. Toronto paid for it with a 23-year-old on a below-market deal and committed $75 million before he has taken a shift in blue and white. If Marchenko and Matthews click, this is the trade that defines Chayka's first year. If they don't, Knies will spend five years in Columbus reminding Toronto what it gave away. Follow the fallout on our standings page as the Atlantic race starts tonight.