We’re six days away from the start of the 2019/20 season and the Toronto Maple Leafs still don’t have a captain.
After the incident surrounding Auston Matthews, the Toronto Maple Leafs will likely go in another direction with the captaincy.
A lot of people thought it would be Matthews that would be the next captain. We thought the Leafs social media team was trolling us with the instagram post of what looks to be a ‘C’ on Matthews’ jersey. Then, there was the picture of Carlton the Bear on a boat with the caption “Ahoy, captain!”, along with a Matthews jersey in the bottom right corner.
Maybe Matthews was destined to be the captain, maybe he wasn’t.
While everyone was expecting him to be named captain to start the season, the Leafs might look to wait even longer to name a captain.
The two likely candidates for the captaincy, and their future.
Other than Matthews, there were two likely candidates, who could take on the role as captain.
Morgan Rielly, and John Tavares.
In an article from Toronto Sun reporter, Steve Simmons, the Leafs expected to name a captain before the season started, “I believe Shanahan wanted Matthews to be the captain. I believe general manager Kyle Dubas wanted John Tavares to be captain.”
Later in the article, Simmons says the Toronto Maple Leafs were leaning towards Tavares, “the Leafs started floating a story around Wednesday that Tavares was the choice all along.”
Tavares is a likely candidate because he’s a proven leader, he’s good with the media and he works hard every day. Do the Leafs really want to name Tavares the captain, after he captained the New York Islanders? I don’t think it matters.
He has six more years with the Toronto Maple Leafs, unless he re-signs to stay even longer. That would be the safest bet for captain, since it’s certain he will be here the longest out of the three.
Matthews is starting his five-year contract and Rielly has three more years left on his current deal.
Would it be ideal to name Rielly the captain, if there’s a possibility of him leaving in three years? Probably not.
The Leafs will likely try and sign the Leafs longest tenured player and have him be a Leaf for life.
Right now, if you had to pick out of the two (Rielly or Tavares), who would it be? Would you pick the player that you’re certain will be a Leaf for six more years, or the longest tenured Leaf?
Six days until the season starts, it just might be that one of these two players are named the next captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, or they could prolong the choice until everyone agrees.