The tallest Leaf skater selection since 2017 (when the Leafs picked towering defensemen Eemeli Rasanen and Fedor Gordeev) and tallest forward selection since Egor Korshkov in 2016, Knies is a player who the Leafs‘ new Senior Director of Minor League Operations, Ryan Hardy, would be quite familiar with due to his USHL background.
The Leafs also used to employ Ryan Ward — who worked for the Marlies and Leafs as a video coach from 2014-2016 — and he would have been a connection they would have tapped into for video and intel on Knies, with Ward now serving as the Director of Player Development for the Tri-City Storm.