Did Matthew Knies Overstep With Recent Comments About Leafs Teammate William Nylander?

Heading into training camp, one massive question mark for the Maple Leafs is, who will join Auston Matthews and Knies on the Leafs' top line?

Most reporters have given the edge to newcomer Matias Maccelli, with some describing him as a 'poor-man's Mitch Marner' or 'Mitch Marner Lite'.

During a meet-and-greet on Saturday in collaboration with Tylenol, Knies subtly hinted that he would like to have Nylander join him and Matthews to begin the season.

To many, Nylander is the obvious choice to join the top line of the Leafs given his previous chemistry with Matthews and even Knies as the two played close to 60 minutes together at even-strength last season.

As the 22-year-old gets more comfortable in the NHL, he has become more vocal, calling out his teammates multiple times last season for poor efforts. In doing so, the former second-round pick was not shy about including himself in those performance-based call-outs.

In this case, lobbying for a particular player to join he and Matthews could be seen as a bit of an over-step given that he is entering just his third season in the NHL and he should be happy with whoever head coach Craig Berube slots next to him.

Although it would give the Leafs one of the best first lines in the league, it would also create a rather large issue on the second line, leaving John Tavares with two 'new' wingers and forcing the 34-year-old to shoulder more of the load offensively and defensively, which may not be the best idea for the aging center despite having one of his best seasons last year.

As training camp approaches, GM Brad Treliving continues to work the phones to find a suitable top-six forward, but if he is unable to, the Leafs have more than just Nylander capable of stepping into the vacant role on the Leafs' top line and we will likely see a number of candidates get trial runs throughout the pre-season.