Toronto Maple Leafs plan to have just two alternate captains this year
The Toronto Maple Leafs appear to be keeping their leadership circle small this upcoming season.
In each of the past four seasons, John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Morgan Rielly, and Mitch Marner had made up the team’s letter-wearing contingent. Rielly and Marner had stayed as alternate captains, while Tavares donned the “C” since 2019 before giving it up to Matthews before this past season.
But in an interview with The Athletic’s Jonas Siegel, Leafs head coach Craig Berube revealed that the team won’t be adding a third alternate captain to start the year in the absence of Marner, who departed for the Vegas Golden Knights this summer.
“We thought about that and discussed it. I think we leave the A’s with Morgan [Rielly] and JT. But our leadership group is more than that, and that’s what matters for me,” Berube told Siegel.
“You don’t have to have an A on or anything like that to be a leader. We have our leadership group, and that group’s strong, and I think all the guys understand that. I think we’ll just leave the A’s with Morgan and JT right now. Whether that changes or not, it could. But right now, it’s not.”
The most obvious replacement for Marner would be William Nylander, coming off three straight seasons of 40-plus goals. But given Nylander’s typical low-key attitude, it doesn’t seem he’d be bothered much by a letter on his jersey either way.
What kind of void does Marner leave behind with the Leafs?
Coming off a 102-point season, Marner’s offensive production will surely be missed by the Leafs.
But Marner had spoken earlier this summer about his emotional goodbyes to his teammates, as he’ll leave a pretty big hole in the dressing room as well.
“Obviously, the phone call to Auston was pretty tough. It was emotional. He had to get back to Arizona pretty quickly after the season. I tried to get a sit-down with him before, but it didn’t pan out with everything happening. That phone call to him was pretty tough, it was pretty emotional. Obviously, we came in together, we did a lot of things together,” Marner told TSN’s Mark Masters.
“Saying goodbye to Morgan [Rielly] as well, [John Tavares], [William Nylander], all those guys as we really came in together, grew together, leaned on each other for a lot of things. The market was tough to all of us at times, and we needed to lean on each other. It was tough to call those guys and let them know it was going to happen,” Marner added.
The Leafs head to Vegas on Jan. 15 to face off against Marner and his new Golden Knights teammates, while they’ll host them a little over a week later back in Toronto on Jan. 23.
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