Maple Leafs' Matthew Knies thoughts revealed amid trade rumors originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Matthew Knies is still out there in trade rumors.

But are the Toronto Maple Leafs actually going to deal him? That is much less certain.

And on Thursday, their assistant GM made it clear what Knies means to the Leafs.

“For us, we’re in contact with his group, as you always are with all your players," assistant GM Ryan Hardy told OverDrive. "But Matthew Knies is an important part of the Maple Leafs, and anything beyond that is really just speculation."

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The Knies trade situation has been a bit of a weird one since the beginning.

He's a talented, 23-year old winger on a decent contract. Nothing has suggested that he needs to be moved out of Toronto.

He's also somehow remained in the trade rumors despite a total change of front office.

No one can simply affirm that he belongs with the Maple Leafs, so he keeps getting shopped, but he'd probably have quite a high price, and clearly that hasn't been met yet.

And at least publicly, the Maple Leafs have assured their fanbase that they like having Knies on their team.

So is he getting traded? It's anyone's guess, but if it actually happens, it'll feel a bit weird even with all this build-up to a deal.

7-foot-1 draft pick is impossibly tall