Matthew Knies' Contract Comparables Officially Revealed for Brad Treliving and the Leafs

In a time where all the focus tends to be on Mitch Marner's future with the Toronto Maple Leafs, they have one pressing concern they should keep tabs on and that's the pending restricted free agent status of Matthew Knies.

Emerging as a star for the team, he is on the cusp of superstardom though his delegation as an RFA means that teams can offer him a boatload of money if he doesn't sign with Toronto by July 1.

They can simply match the offer, but with a raised salary cap and Knies' potential; it could be a hard deal to get done.

So with wanting to avoid that, they need to sign him ASAP. But how much is he worth?

Given he's only had two professional seasons (including this year), there's a lot of questions about whether he deserves the Brinks truck, or wait and hit a cheaper bridge deal to gauge things.

Well, considering he's part of a very short list of players who are truly game-changing power forwards; we may have a better idea.

As part of only a trio of players with over 150 hits and 25 goals, Knies' emergence this season has been everything we could have hoped for and more.

This season he has 45 points in 65 games and just stretched over the 150-hit plateau with 155 so far; and if he keeps it up could eclipse 200.

Those other two players on the list aren't anything to ignore either. While both are no doubt a bit more controversial than Knies, you can't deny their impact.

Wilson gets a lot of hate for how he plays the game (and rightly so at times), but he's found a perfect blend of uber-aggressive play and offensive capabilities that's made Washington dangerous for years.

He's hit the 30-goal plateau for the first time in his career, and is going to eclipse the 200-hit mark for the second straight season.

While Knies isn't as dastardly as Wilson (who has over 1500 PIM and several suspensions), if he gets a bit more of an edge to his game; it could lead to massive things in the future.

Tkachuk already has 215 hits to go along with his 27 goals, and his play is a massive reason as to why Ottawa is contending for a playoff spot and was the catalyst in the Team Canada/Team USA fighting frenzy during the 4 Nations.

Knies won't need to start slugging and playing dirty in order to get to the level of his compatriots, as clearly he can do it cleanly and effectively. He deserves a big payday, and Toronto can't afford to play stingy with their future superstar.