Kirill Marchenko wanted out of Columbus, and the Blue Jackets GM has now said as much. The same question is following Matthew Knies out of Toronto.
Blue Jackets insider Aaron Portzline reported Tuesday that Don Waddell never got a firm explanation for why the winger wanted to leave.
What Waddell did get, through Marchenko and agent Dan Milstein, was simple enough. The player "preferred to play somewhere else."
That wish got granted Monday in a six-player trade. Toronto landed the winger along with goaltender Elvis Merzlikins and forward Miles Wood.
Columbus got Matthew Knies, Steven Lorentz, Emil Andrae and a 2027 second-round pick.
Then came the money. Marchenko signed a six-year, $75 million extension with the Leafs, after Columbus allowed Toronto to negotiate it as part of the deal.
That's a massive commitment to a player whose last team couldn't get a straight answer out of him. The Leafs are betting he gives them one.
Wild details emerge after blockbuster Marchenko-Knies trade
The Knies side is murkier. Asked about his time in Toronto after the trade, he said he was "glad it's over," according to Portzline.
Portzline's reporting raises the possibility that Knies wanted out too, but that part isn't confirmed the way Marchenko's wish now is.
Knies leaves Toronto off a career-high 66 points in 79 games, with his entire NHL career spent in a Leafs sweater.
He also carries the six-year extension he signed in 2025, worth $7.75 million a year.
John Chayka's apology for months of trade noise reads differently now. So does his insistence that this was the only Knies deal Toronto seriously considered.
Who wins a trade where both sides might have wanted out? It could be the rare swap where two roommates were already apartment hunting and ended up signing each other's leases.
Toronto gets a winger coming off 27 goals and 67 points.
He had also led Columbus in goals in each of the previous three seasons, which makes the lack of a real explanation sting even more.
The new Leaf makes his Toronto debut tonight against Montreal, while Knies and the Blue Jackets open Thursday at home against Buffalo.
The first reunion comes October 20 in Columbus. By then, both players will have had three weeks to show which side of this deal got the happier customer.
Did the Maple Leafs win the Marchenko for Knies trade?
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