Toronto Maple Leafs should never have given the Captaincy to John Tavares

John Tavares is off to one of his hottest starts as a member of the Toronto Maple leafs, so maybe he never should have been named captain in the first place?

When you look back on John Tavares career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, everyone points to his $11M contract being too expensive, but objectively speaking, he has been worth every penny. With 428 points in 449 career games thus far, you can't really ask for much more from a guy who's previous season-high was 86 points. (naturalstattrick.com).

For a player who can't skate that well, the fact that he's still an effective player at 34-years-old, when we all assumed that Year 5, 6 and 7 of his contract would be terrible, is very impressive.

After signing a seven-year deal, we all assumed the Leafs would have had three Stanley Cup's by now, so I guess since that hasn't happened, people devalue the contract, but I still think it's good.

Toronto Maple Leafs should never have given the Captaincy to John Tavares

However, the big question that comes to play right now since Tavares is playing so well, is the captaincy. Being the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs is a huge responsibility. Not only does the captain need to perform at a high level, but there are about 1000 other things they need to do on a daily basis that the regular fan doesn't notice.

From media responsibilities, charity events and partner activations, the captain is responsible for everything and is the face of the team. Tavares had been a captain before with the New York Islanders, but doing that for his hometown team in the biggest hockey market in the world is much different and that weighs on a player.

Just look at Auston Matthews right now. He only has four goals in 10 games and isn't the dominating player that we saw last year. It's not like he's playing terrible, but based on his standards, he's definitely lacking.

Tavares is having his best season since his first year with the Leafs and it makes sense because that's the last year he wasn't the captain. When Tavares joined the Leafs for the 2018-19 season, the team went a full season without naming a captain. They took their time to evaluate things and Tavares shined.

He scored a career-high 47 goals and 88 points and was arguably the Leafs best player that year. That season helped make the decision easy for the Leafs, but I also think the Leafs wanted to name Auston Matthews the captain back then, but his actions in summer, 2019 changed their mind.

As much as Tavares was a great pick as captain, I do think there's a world where Leafs management wanted to give the keys to Matthews and allow Tavares to have less responsibility. Signing in Toronto is more than enough of a distraction, but being the captain adds such an element that he may not have wanted. Also, based on some of his endorsements, it's fair to question his leadership abilities.

Overall, I think the diminished pressured was why he was so happy to give up the captaincy this year and he truly felt honored to pass the torch to Matthews.

So, should Tavares have ever been named captain? Personally, I don't think so. Matthews should have been the captain all along and if that were the case, things probably would have been different, but at least now we're finally getting that relaxed Tavares who can play freely without having the responsibilities of a captain.