A day after a disheartening loss to the Minnesota Wild, two of the Toronto Maple Leafs best players, Auston Matthews and William Nylander, were named as a captain and alternate captain for the upcoming Four Nations Cup.
This past summer Matthews was named the 26th captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs and he will now be honoured with the same role for his country.
Several insiders, including staff at Sportsnet released in the early afternoon on Thursday that Matthews would be the captain of the United States. The 2016 first overall pick will be flanked by alternate captains Matthew Tkachuk from the Florida Panthers and Charlie McAvoy from the Boston Bruins.
Matthews personality and style couldn't be further apart from McAvoy and Tkachuk as those two players are known as two players that cross the line on a nightly basis, while the Maple Leafs star has been a consideration for the Lady Byng throughout his career. Hopefully the Maple Leafs captain can take a bit of their game and bring it back to Toronto.
There has been some discussion throughout the season whether or not Matthews should even attend the midseason tournament due to some nagging injuries he has had to deal with throughout the season. However, he has looked back to form since returning in early January where he has collected nine goals and 15 points in 12 games.
The three-time Rocket Richard Trophy winner was looking to become just the second Maple Leafs player to record 50-goals in three separate seasons joining Rick Vaive, however the injuries have derailed him and he'll have a tough time reaching 40.
Toronto Maple Leafs stars named Captains for 4 Nations Cup
For years, Nylander has been the most underrated of the Core Four and is built for the Toronto media. Throughout the years the only time the Swedish-Calgarian has wore a letter is if the team was missing two of the alternate captains in the same game.
Nylander will join Pittsburgh Penguins Erik Karlsson and Edmonton Oilers Mattias Ekholm as alternate captains for Sweden supporting Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman as the captain.
The Maple Leafs 2014 first round pick has had a great career in Toronto and is coming off back-to-back 40-goal seasons.; and is off to an even better start this year with 29 tallies. If Nylander can reach that mark again this year, he would join Matthews, Vaive, Darryl Sittler and Lanny McDonald to be the only players in Maple Leafs history with three 40-goal seasons, a club that not even Mats Sundin reached.