Matthew Knies girlfriend and partner Ella Huber is a professional ice hockey forward for the Boston Fleet of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). Huber, born December 18, 2002, played four seasons at the University of Minnesota before being selected 10th overall in the second round of the 2025 PWHL Draft. The two met as students at Minnesota, where both starred on the ice at the same time.
Who Is Ella Huber?
Ella Huber is a 23-year-old American professional ice hockey forward who signed with the Boston Fleet of the PWHL on August 13, 2025, after being drafted in the second round of the inaugural PWHL expansion draft. Her full biographical and career record is documented on her Wikipedia profile. She stands 5 feet 5 inches tall and shoots left — a quick, skilled two-way forward who captained the University of Minnesota Gophers women’s hockey program during her final two seasons.
Growing up in Northfield, Illinois, Huber attended New Trier High School before joining the Chicago Mission AAA program, where she won five state championships, four regional championships, and one national championship. That résumé wasn’t a surprise to anyone watching her climb. She represented the United States at the 2020 IIHF World Women’s U18 Championship, winning gold and recording one goal in five tournament games.
Her NCAA career at Minnesota speaks for itself. According to gophersports.com, Huber finished with 52 goals and 88 assists across 157 collegiate games — totaling 140 career points. She was named team captain for the 2023-24 season and returned as co-captain the following year. In her senior season (2024-25), she posted a career-high 48 points (15 goals, 33 assists), ranking second on the team and tied sixth in the nation in assists.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | Minnesota (NCAA) | 39 | 9 | 12 | 21 |
| 2022-23 | Minnesota (NCAA) | 37 | 10 | 19 | 29 |
| 2023-24 | Minnesota (NCAA) | 39 | 18 | 24 | 42 |
| 2024-25 | Minnesota (NCAA) | 42 | 15 | 33 | 48 |
| NCAA Totals | 157 | 52 | 88 | 140 |
The Boston Fleet officially announced her signing on August 13, 2025, on a two-year contract. She becomes one of the first players from the 2025 PWHL Draft class to ink a deal, joining a Fleet roster that has attracted significant national attention since the league’s founding.
How Did Matthew Knies and His Girlfriend Meet?
Both Matthew Knies and Ella Huber played college hockey at the University of Minnesota at the same time, which is almost certainly where they crossed paths. Knies enrolled at Minnesota in the fall of 2021 and played two seasons with the men’s Gophers hockey program before leaving for the NHL in April 2023. Huber started at Minnesota the same fall — 2021 — and stayed all four years through the 2024-25 season.
Their overlap on campus ran from fall 2021 through spring 2023, meaning they spent nearly two full academic years at the same university, both playing for nationally prominent hockey programs in the same building complex. The relationship became public knowledge by August 2024, when Huber posted vacation photos on social media showing the two of them traveling together in Europe, drawing coverage from The Hockey News.
The timing makes sense. Two young athletes grinding through the same elite college hockey culture, sharing a campus, attending the same facilities, both representing Team USA on the international stage at various points. That two highly competitive hockey players from the same program ended up together is less a coincidence and more a product of how tight the college hockey world actually is at that level.
The 2025 PWHL Draft: The Pick That Almost Changed Everything
On June 24, 2025, the Professional Women’s Hockey League held its draft, and Ella Huber’s name was called by the Boston Fleet with the 10th overall pick (second round). The pick drew immediate attention, not only because of Huber’s talent but because of what almost happened instead.
Matthew Knies discussed the moment openly on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast, and his candor caught fans off guard. When producer Mike Grinnell asked Knies where he was most excited to travel during the upcoming season and hinted at Boston, Knies initially answered “Anaheim and Vegas” before the joke registered. Then he got real about the draft outcome.
“Toronto had the next pick, so that’s a huge bummer, but it happens… I think we kind of had it pretty locked in [the Sceptres selecting Huber], I mean, it happens.”
— Matthew Knies, Spittin’ Chiclets podcast, October 2025
The Toronto Sceptres, the PWHL team playing in the same city where Knies suits up for the Maple Leafs, held the very next selection after Boston. Instead of Huber, they chose forward Emma Gentry. The near-miss is the kind of twist that sounds scripted but wasn’t, Knies and Huber came within one pick of being able to share a city, live closer together, and watch each other compete on home ice.
For a 23-year-old who had just signed a six-year, under-$8-million-per-season extension with Toronto, that single selection was a quiet gut punch. Knies handled it with the same low-key composure that’s made him so well-liked in the Maple Leafs locker room. No drama, no complaints. Just a candid acknowledgment of a life arranged by draft boards and geography.
Matthew Knies: The NHL Star Behind the Story
Matthew Michael Knies was born on October 17, 2002, in Phoenix, Arizona, to Miroslav and Michaela Knies, who had immigrated to the United States from Slovakia before his birth. He grew up fluent in Slovak and spent his childhood as an Arizona Coyotes fan, which makes his eventual career in Toronto a satisfying kind of irony. His older brother Phillip also played college hockey, at Miami University and Bentley University.
Toronto drafted Knies in the second round, 57th overall, at the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. He spent two seasons at the University of Minnesota, where he won the Big Ten Player of the Year award in 2023 and was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, the top prize in American college hockey. He left after his sophomore year, signed a three-year entry-level contract on April 9, 2023, and made his NHL debut the very next day against the Florida Panthers.
The 2024-25 season was his breakout. According to NHL.com statistics, Knies posted 29 goals and 29 assists across 78 regular season games, then added 5 goals and 2 assists across 13 playoff games. The six-year extension he signed with the Maple Leafs, at a reported annual cap hit under $8 million, immediately drew praise from analysts who noted how team-friendly the deal was given his production trajectory.
| NHL Season | GP | G | A | Pts | Playoff GP | Playoff Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 |
| 2023-24 | 80 | 15 | 20 | 35 | 7 | 3 |
| 2024-25 | 78 | 29 | 29 | 58 | 13 | 7 |
| NHL Totals | 161 | 44 | 50 | 94 | 27 | 14 |
He also represented the United States at the 2022 Winter Olympics and the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, adding an international dimension to a career that’s still barely two full NHL seasons old. The Arizona kid who grew up cheering for a franchise that no longer exists has quietly become one of the most important players on one of the NHL’s most scrutinized teams.
Hockey’s Newest Power Couple: Life Across Two Cities
Matthew Knies and Ella Huber are, by most accounts, one of hockey’s genuinely rare dual-professional couples. Both play at the highest levels of their respective leagues, and both chose to stay in their sport rather than transfer to programs or teams based on proximity to each other. When the PWHL held its 2025 draft and Boston selected Huber ahead of Toronto, the couple’s situation shifted from manageable to genuinely long-distance.
Toronto and Boston are about a 10-hour drive or a one-hour flight apart, which in the context of NHL and PWHL travel schedules isn’t catastrophic, but it does mean the couple spends most of their competing months in different cities. The PWHL and NHL seasons overlap significantly from October through April, leaving limited shared downtime during the competitive calendar.
What’s unusual about their dynamic is the visibility. Knies openly mentioned Huber on a widely distributed podcast without prompting. She appeared in his orbit publicly as early as summer 2024, when their European vacation photos circulated in hockey media. Neither seems particularly interested in maintaining artifice about the relationship, which the r/leafs community has picked up on, one viral post in 2025 called Knies “a certified beauty” for the public support he shows her career.
Two elite athletes, competing at the professional level simultaneously, supporting each other across rival-city franchises, that’s not a common story even in a sport where player couples do exist. The fact that they came within one pick of competing in the same city adds a layer that most hockey couples never have to navigate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Matthew Knies girlfriend?
Matthew Knies girlfriend is Ella Huber, a professional ice hockey forward for the Boston Fleet of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). Huber was born on December 18, 2002, in Northfield, Illinois, and played college hockey at the University of Minnesota before turning professional in 2025.
How did Matthew Knies and Ella Huber meet?
Matthew Knies and Ella Huber most likely met at the University of Minnesota, where both played college hockey starting in the 2021-22 season. Knies played for the men’s Gophers program from 2021 to 2023, while Huber played for the women’s program from 2021 to 2025, giving them roughly two full years of overlap on campus.
What PWHL team does Ella Huber play for?
Ella Huber plays for the Boston Fleet of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). She was selected 10th overall in the second round of the 2025 PWHL Draft on June 24, 2025, and signed a two-year contract with the Fleet on August 13, 2025.
Why did Matthew Knies call the PWHL draft heartbreaking?
Matthew Knies described the situation as “a huge bummer” on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast because the Toronto Sceptres, the PWHL team in his city, held the very next pick after Boston selected Ella Huber. The Sceptres chose a different player, meaning Huber ended up in Boston rather than Toronto, where she and Knies could have competed in the same city.
When did Matthew Knies and Ella Huber go public?
The relationship became publicly visible by August 2024, when Ella Huber posted photos of the two together while on vacation in Europe. The Hockey News reported on the photos on August 1, 2024, marking the first significant media coverage of their relationship.
What was Ella Huber’s college hockey career like?
Ella Huber finished her NCAA career at Minnesota with 52 goals, 88 assists, and 140 total points in 157 games. She was named team captain in 2023-24 and returned as co-captain in 2024-25, her senior year, during which she posted a career-high 48 points. She reached the 100-point milestone in November 2024 and scored her 50th career goal in February 2025.
Where is Matthew Knies from?
Matthew Knies was born on October 17, 2002, in Phoenix, Arizona. His parents, Miroslav and Michaela Knies, emigrated from Slovakia to the United States before his birth. He grew up speaking Slovak fluently and was a fan of the Arizona Coyotes before being drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2021.
Matthew Knies Girlfriend Ella Huber: Two Careers, One City Apart
The matthew knies girlfriend story that caught hockey fans’ attention in 2025 points to something genuinely unusual in professional sports. Ella Huber has built a career that stands entirely on its own terms. Four years as a captain-caliber player at one of the top programs in American college hockey, a gold medal at the U18 World Championship, and now a professional contract in the PWHL. She didn’t become newsworthy because of who she’s dating. She became newsworthy because she’s one of the better women’s hockey players of her generation, and the overlap with Knies’ story only adds context to two separate careers developing at the same time.
The fact that one PWHL draft pick separated them from sharing a city is the kind of small twist that sports tends to produce more often than anyone admits. Knies said it plainly on the podcast: it happens. He’s right. It just happens in a way that’s worth knowing about.
