Useless in a playoff race: Kirill Marchenko is perfect for Toronto

Marc-Olivier Cook
Useless in a playoff race: Kirill Marchenko is perfect for Toronto
Credit: YT

That's today's big news in the National League. Kirill Marchenko has (finally) been traded.

The Russian is now a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs: Matthew Knies is heading in the opposite direction… and is now part of the Columbus Blue Jackets organization.

Marchenko in the City of Kings makes sense. Especially considering that the guy was invisible in '25–'26 when his team needed him…

Last season, the Blue Jackets were just a few points away from a playoff spot and needed to win their final games. But the team lost eight of its last ten games… because Columbus's star players didn't show up.

And among them was Kirill Marchenko… who scored just a single goal in his team's last eight games—the ones that mattered most in the standings.

You can't make this stuff up…

(Credit: Screenshot / ESPN)

You might say I have a dirty mouth and that I'm maybe bashing Marchenko because the Habs weren't able to sign him in the end.

But… no.

Because we already knew this here at DLC: last June, when the Canadiens were in the thick of the race to acquire the Russian, we published an article discussing that red flag with Marchenko.

And to see that it was the Leafs—a team that lacks grit when it counts—who ended up signing him… it's ironic on some levels.

What I just can't wrap my head around…

It's the fact that Knies was the ONLY player in Toronto who played that style. The kind of player who takes hits along the boards and isn't afraid to get in the thick of the action to create opportunities on the ice.

And the Leafs traded him away for a guy who wasn't able to step up in the big moments when his team needed him. I have to ask: Are the Leafs better off with Knies or Marchenko?

Actually…

In the playoffs, will the Leafs be better off with Marchenko (a guy who doesn't always give it his all) in the lineup? There it is—the million-dollar question…


In a nutshell

– Crazy!

– Do we like it?

– Oh.

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