There's lots to like about John Tavares as captain, but given the Leafs playoff history and a new GM, his role should be scrutinized.
torontosun.com
And just when the Shanaplan rebuild was set with an opportune moment to let one of its brightest lights grow into the role, Auston Matthews blew his chance in the summer of 2019 with the ‘Captain Underpants’ incident in Arizona.
John Tavares was named captain instead and there has been a lot to like about his 354 points in 360 regular-season games, a team-high 47 goals his first year and ranking near the top of NHL faceoff percentage just about every time that stat is perused.
The first GTA-born captain since Sid Smith in 1955, Tavares is dependable, accountable and cordial before the cameras. In Game 6 in Tampa Bay on April 29, his overtime goal brought Toronto its first playoff series win in 19 years.
Why, then, are there rumblings that a letter shuffle is in the cards before the 2023-24 campaign under new general manager Brad Treliving?
Firstly, anything Tavares does positively is still measured by many against his seven-year, $77-million US deal that has hamstrung the club’s salary structure. Fair or not, that imbalance gets blamed for management’s inability to add the elusive final piece or two for a longer playoff run.
In three of four first-round eliminations prior to this spring (Tavares was injured in 2021 vs. Montreal), the Leafs played five games with a chance to advance. He had a total of three goals and just one in three Game 7s.
Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander have also failed to seize the moment, either individually or collectively as 75% of the Core Four forwards. But Tavares, as the oldest, second-highest paid and least flashy of the quartet, is constantly magnified for poor pilotage.
No matter how you judge former GM Kyle Dubas’ roster construction or coach Sheldon Keefe’s nightly tactics, the stars must come out when it counts. And on a team that trots out its leadership group to meet the media in the best of times, Tavares will catch his share of flak in the worst.
The Leafs followed the win over Tampa with a tepid effort against the Florida Panthers where Tavares started looking like a player nearing age 33. Treliving is now in assessment phase and, if really being granted a free hand by club president Brendan Shanahan, everything about the underachieving Leafs should be on the table.
If not moving potential 2024 UFAs Matthews and Nylander by July 1, or Marner before his no-movement clause is triggered that same day, a fresh pair of eyes just might create some good optics with a disgruntled public by switching captains.
But who to replace Tavares? Morgan Rielly was considered and the longest-serving Leaf certainly carries himself like a captain, especially during the recent playoffs and always is there when a teammate is getting skewered. He also has a greater gift of gab than most when confronting and disarming the daily media horde.
Perhaps the captaincy becomes an unwritten part of a Matthews extension, or shared duty between Tavares, Rielly, Matthews and Marner or a veteran such as Mark Giordano and (if he re-signs) Ryan O’Reilly, both former captains elsewhere.
