{"id":447934,"date":"2024-08-12T19:35:20","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T23:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=447934"},"modified":"2024-08-12T19:35:20","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T23:35:20","slug":"report-toronto-maple-leafs-expected-to-make-captain-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/08\/12\/report-toronto-maple-leafs-expected-to-make-captain-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Toronto Maple Leafs Expected to Make Captain Switch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reports have emerged that the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/08\/06\/nhl-sweaters-the-best-and-worst-of-the-toronto-maple-leafs\/\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> will make an on-ice leadership change. Multiple reports have emerged that the Leafs will name <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/matthau01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-08-12_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Auston Matthews<\/a> captain of the team. He will replace <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/tavarjo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-08-12_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Tavares<\/a> as the team&#8217;s captain. Matthews is expected to be named the franchise&#8217;s 26th captain in franchise history.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Expect the Toronto Maple Leafs to name Auston Matthews captain on Wednesday. This is part of the evolution of Matthews as a leader and current Maple Leafs captain John Tavares fully supports the change. Tavares has been heavily involved in the process with GM Brad Treliving.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DarrenDreger\/status\/1823131242553905294?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 12, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Report: Maple Leafs to Name Auston Matthews Captain<\/h2>\n<p>Matthews would become the team&#8217;s first American captain in franchise history. The 29-year-old would become the team&#8217;s second non-Canadian to be team captain. Swedish star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/sundima01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-08-12_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mats Sundin<\/a> was the first non-Canadian player to don the &#8220;C&#8221; in 1997. Sundin held the post from 1997-2008.<\/p>\n<p>Matthews is a former first overall selection from the 2016 NHL Draft. The San Ramon, Calif. native has scored 368 goals and 281 assists in 562 career games. He is coming of a season where he notched 69 goals and 38 assists over 81 games. Matthews has six 40-plus goal seasons in his eight-year career.<\/p>\n<p>Last season, Matthews bagged the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/richama01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-08-12_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Maurice Richard<\/a> Trophy. He also won the Calder Trophy in 2016-17 as well as the Hart Trophy and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/l\/lindste01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-08-12_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ted Lindsay<\/a> Award in 2021-22.<\/p>\n<h3>What It Means<\/h3>\n<p>It seems like the Maple Leafs are clearing the way for Tavares&#8217; exit or at least a reduced role. Tavares is entering the final year of his big contract with his hometown team.<\/p>\n<p>TSN&#8217;s Darren Dreger said that Tavares is on board with the decision and has been involved in the move with Maple Leafs General Manager Brad Treliving. Tavares was also a captain with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/08\/11\/best-islanders-by-jersey-number-11-20\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Islanders<\/a> before taking the post in October 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The move does make some sense as Tavares faces an uncertain future with the franchise. He&#8217;ll likely either move on or take a reduced salary at the end of the season when he becomes an unrestricted free agent.<\/p>\n<p>Matthews just <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/03\/13\/leafs-extend-bobby-mcmann\/\" target=\"_self\">signed a four-year, $53 million contract<\/a> that will kick in at the start of the season. He figures to be in Toronto&#8217;s plans for a long time.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo by: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reports have emerged that the Toronto Maple Leafs will make an on-ice leadership change. Multiple reports have emerged that the Leafs will name Auston Matthews captain of the team. He will replace John Tavares as the team&#8217;s captain. Matthews is expected to be named the franchise&#8217;s 26th captain in franchise history. Expect the Toronto Maple [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":136227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4547,34,4548,18],"tags":[228,499,5951],"class_list":["post-447934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","category-leafs","tag-auston-matthews","tag-john-tavares","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-news"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}