Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews to take over captaincy from John Tavares

On Sep 22, 2024

The Toronto Maple Leafs can be making a significant change to their captaincy.

Star ahead Auston Matthews will substitute veteran John Tavares within the function, Sportsnet can affirm.

The 26-year-old would be the Maple Leafs’ twenty sixth captain in franchise historical past. It marks the primary time the group has ever had an American captain and simply the second time they’ve had a non-Canadian captain — the opposite being Swede Mats Sundin.

Matthews takes over from 33-year-old Tavares, who was named captain in October 2019. Tavares took on the function simply over a 12 months after becoming a member of the group as a free agent in the summertime of 2018. The Mississauga native is about to enter the ultimate season of his seven-year, $77 million contract.

In the meantime, Matthews is about to enter the primary season of his five-year, $53 million deal.

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This previous season marked a number of profession highs for Matthews, together with video games performed (81), targets (69) and factors (107). He received his third Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy in 2023-24 because the NHL’s main aim scorer, including to a person awards assortment that additionally contains the Ted Lindsay Award, Hart Memorial Trophy and Calder Memorial Trophy.

Chosen first general by Toronto on the 2016 NHL Draft, Matthews has been with the group for the previous eight seasons and been named an All-Star 5 occasions.

The Maple Leafs can be hoping the change in management will present a lift to a group that has struggled to discover success within the playoffs for a few years now, together with this previous season once they had been knocked out within the first spherical by the hands of the Boston Bruins.

Aside from Matthews’ rookie season (2016-17), the Maple Leafs have superior to the playoffs each season. Nonetheless, they haven’t superior previous the second spherical, which they reached solely as soon as throughout that span.

The franchise has not received a Stanley Cup since 1967.

The official announcement is anticipated on Wednesday, with the group saying Monday that they are going to be holding a press convention at 11 a.m. ET.

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