It was the late Toronto general manager/coach Pat Quinn who declared “your best player should be your team captain”.
And starting Wednesday, that will be true of the current Maple Leafs when Auston Matthews is named the 26th captain in franchise history. It was only a question of time before current skipper John Tavares would be asked to step aside as his contract approaches its final year and Matthews matured into a more well-rounded leader.
A month before this year’s training camp begins, with new coach Craig Berube coming in, it was decided to make the change, a decision that GM Brad Treliving and club president Brendan Shanahan would’ve been in on as well.
The club has called an 11 a.m. press conference Wednesday for “a team announcement”.
Matthews, who turns 27 in a month, is coming off his third Rocket Richard NHL scoring championship trophy with 69 goals last season and has previously won the Hart and Ted Lindsay awards as MVP, both in 2022.
At 368 goals he is 52 behind former captain Mats Sundin for the franchise lead, is already first in even-strength markers with 274 and ranks sixth in points at 649, with Sundin first at 987.
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The Leafs had designs on making Matthews the captain in 2019, but a brush with the law in an off-season, off-ice incident in his hometown of Scottsdale, Ariz., resulted in Tavares getting the ‘C’ in his second year as a Leaf.
Tavares, who will be 34 in September, was the long-time captain of the New York Islanders. While not the demonstrative Mark Messier type that many wanted to see, Tavares served with pride and distinction in his hometown and the potential distraction of the position in the NHL’s biggest market did not hamper his many productive years.
Matthews showed yet another part of his 200-foot game last season when he became a regular penalty killer. He has always carried himself well with mega-media attention in Toronto. As an alternate captain with Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly (the long-serving Rielly was also considered a candidate for the ‘C’ at times) he has respect of game officials and is a former Lady Byng Trophy winner and finalist for good conduct. He has 114 penalty minutes in 562 games.
He’s already comfortable being the face of the team in many public relations and charity events. He has special bonds with young fans, making many unpublicized visits to the Hospital for Sick Children.
But the big hope obviously is the mantle of added responsibility mantle helps lifts him and the team to playoff success. Matthews’ regular season numbers have yet to translate into a long post-season run, the Leafs advancing beyond the first round just once in his eight years. He’ll have at least four years to prove himself worthy of the letter, on the back half of his contract at a team-high $13.25 million US.
Matthews will also be the club’s first American-born captain, a lineage stretching back to Ken Randall of the 1917 Toronto St. Patricks and including many Hall of Famers such as Syl Apps, Charlie Conacher, Teeder Kennedy, George Armstrong (the last to hoist the Stanley Cup in 1967), Dave Keon, Darryl Sittler and Sundin.
Matthews will be the second Leaf the club drafted first overall to wear the ‘C’ after Wendel Clark, though Sundin, Tavares and Rob Ramage were No. 1 overalls with other teams.
Lhornby@postmedia,com
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