After a momentary lull in negotiations, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Toronto Maple Leafs have lined up on a notable trade shortly before the roster deadline. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that the Blue Jackets and Maple Leafs will swap Kirill Marchenko for Matthew Knies. Additionally, LeBrun added that six players will be involved in the trade, including netminder Elvis Merzļikins.

Shortly after LeBrun’s update, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the Maple Leafs have acquired Marchenko, Merzļikins, and Miles Wood. In return, the Blue Jackets have acquired Knies, Steven Lorentz, Emil Andrae, and a second-round pick.

Marchenko’s agent, Dan Milstein, shared that Marchenko has signed a six-year, $75MM ($12.5MM AAV) extension with Toronto. Earlier today, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported that the Maple Leafs were permitted to negotiate an extension with Marchenko as part of the trade talks.

Clearly, the Maple Leafs believe that Marchenko has a higher ceiling than Knies and have paid him accordingly. Barring any new acquisitions or extensions, Marchenko will become Toronto’s third-highest-paid forward in the 2027-28 season behind Auston Matthews and William Nylander. Coincidentally, that’s where Knies was positioned on the team’s cap table, nearly $5MM cheaper.

There’s no question Marchenko has stepped up his game over the past two years. He has been a quality goal-scorer since entering the league in the 2022-23 season, but he has shown more playmaking skill over the past two years. Since the beginning of the 2024-25 campaign, Marchenko has scored 58 goals and 141 points in 155 games with the Blue Jackets. He has also posted a +36 rating over the stretch.

Because of the offensive prowess he has shown since the 2024-25 season, Marchenko doesn’t get as much love as he is owed on the defensive side. In the same period, Marchenko has averaged 53.0% CorsiFor and 91.1% on-ice SV% at even strength. Assuming neither of those two qualities disappear overnight, Marchenko should be a tremendous addition for a team coached by Jim Hiller.

Toronto has also acquired another $8MM in Wood and Merzļikins. Fortunately, Wood has already cleared waivers, so the Maple Leafs only have to pay him $1.275MM if they’d like to keep him with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. Wood just finished his lone season in Columbus, scoring eight goals and 14 points in 54 games with a -10 rating, averaging 11:51 of ice time per game.

Merzļikins is the real question mark and may have been included to get Columbus to agree to the trade. Still, as burdensome as his salary has been for the Blue Jackets over the past few years, the Maple Leafs can place him on long-term injured reserve to begin the 2026-27 season, and he will become an unrestricted free agent after the upcoming campaign. The Blue Jackets have also retained $972K of Merzļikins’ salary for the 2026-27 season.

For Columbus, as hard as it is to trade their best forward, it’s hard not to like their side of the deal. It was no secret that Marchenko wasn’t going to sign a long-term deal with the Blue Jackets, and General Manager Don Waddell still managed to acquire serious value in return.

According to their bios on Hockey Reference, Knies and Marchenko each stand at 6’3″, but Knies has nearly 30 pounds on Marchenko, making him a true power-forward archetype. Fans in Columbus know the team has had great luck with left-handed shooting power forwards in the past.

Although the Maple Leafs arguably acquired the best player in the deal, there’s a lot to like about Knies. He’s three years younger than Marchenko and is signed to an affordable $7.75MM salary through the 2030-31 season.

Throughout the past two years, Knies has also had a breakout for the Maple Leafs, though not to the same degree as Marchenko. Since the 2024-25 season, Knies has scored 52 goals and 124 points in 157 games with a -23 rating, averaging 18:39 of ice time per game. He is a lot more physical than Marchenko, but doesn’t have nearly the same defensive prowess.

Additionally, the Blue Jackets have acquired a few depth pieces in Lorentz and Andrae. Waddell actually drafted Lorentz back in the 2015 NHL Draft when he was the General Manager of the Carolina Hurricanes. Lorentz has spent the past two years with the Maple Leafs, scoring 15 goals and 37 points in 151 games with a +4 rating, averaging 11:10 of ice time per game while delivering 153 hits.

Meanwhile, Toronto trades Andrae to Columbus before he ever registered a game with the team. The Maple Leafs acquired Andrae a few days after the Hurricanes lifted the Stanley Cup, after they sent Joseph Woll to the Philadelphia Flyers. He scored two goals and 13 points in 61 games for the Flyers last season.

Lastly, the final part of the trade is a 2027 second-round pick. In fact, it was originally owned by the Blue Jackets. Columbus dealt their 2027 second-round pick to the Seattle Kraken last season for Mason Marchment, and it eventually landed with the Maple Leafs after they dealt Bobby McMann to the Pacific Northwest.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images. 

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that the Maple Leafs were engaged in trade talks for Marchenko. 

TSN’s Pierre LeBrun was the first to report that Knies was involved in the trade discussion.

Friedman was the first to report that Merzlikins would be sent to Toronto.