Leafs undecided on alternate captains outside of Tavares
Auston Matthews may not be the only member of the Toronto Maple Leafs getting a new letter on his jersey this fall.
With the 26-year-old officially taking over the captaincy from fellow centre John Tavares on Wednesday, Leafs general manager Brad Treliving remarked that more changes to Toronto’s leadership group could be coming.
Officially offiCial. pic.twitter.com/CPbgdArRuT
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) August 14, 2024
Although the Leafs have had the same group of alternate captains for the past three seasons, with Matthews, Mitch Marner, and Morgan Rielly wearing letters, Tavares is the only confirmed alternate as of now.
“John’s going to be wearing an A,” noted Treliving. “How the rest of our leadership group is formed, that’s something that, you know, we’ll talk about internally with Craig [Berube], myself, Brendan [Shanahan].”
Still, Treliving insists that Marner and Rielly have done a great job up to this point.
The thing that’s really key here is we’ve got great leadership with this team,” he added. “As I mentioned, Morgan and Mitch, who are here today, we’ve got John, who can attest to it. He was supported by great teammates and great leaders on this team. Auston will be as well.”
The GM also touched on a conversation he had with Tavares following Toronto’s first-round loss to the Boston Bruins in seven games this year, addressing the team’s ongoing playoff struggles.
Tavares, who attended Wednesday’s press conference with his wife and children, handled the transition with his usual professionalism.
“This wasn’t a hard conversation in the sense that John’s a really smart guy,” Treliving said. “At the end of the day, everybody’s got the same goal, right? The goal here is to win. You’re always finding different ways that we could push that process along.”