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Leafs to announce captain

Bullfrog said:
CarltonTheBear said:
Bullfrog said:
In the end, I think the anointed group will be Rielly, Tavares, Matthews, and Marner. (I know, I'm really going out on a limb here.) We haven't really talked about it, but I'm 100% positive Marner gets an A.

Well we know Tavares and Rielly are locks for 2 of the letters. If Marner gets one then I'd imagine it'd be a part of a home/away split with Matthews. I can't see Marner getting an A over him outright. But I'm guessing Rielly and Matthews will have permanent As.

Can there only be 3 letters?

Yeah, that's in the rulebook.
 
Give it to Rielly. Then if he leaves in 3 years because we can't afford him, that would probably be the perfect time to transition to Matthews. :)

My first choice though would be Tavares, the even keeled vet who spurned better offers (or at least one better offer) to return to win a Cup with his home town team. I think he would be the "right" choice if the captaincy really meant anything, like it did years ago.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
Bullfrog said:
CarltonTheBear said:
Bullfrog said:
In the end, I think the anointed group will be Rielly, Tavares, Matthews, and Marner. (I know, I'm really going out on a limb here.) We haven't really talked about it, but I'm 100% positive Marner gets an A.

Well we know Tavares and Rielly are locks for 2 of the letters. If Marner gets one then I'd imagine it'd be a part of a home/away split with Matthews. I can't see Marner getting an A over him outright. But I'm guessing Rielly and Matthews will have permanent As.

Can there only be 3 letters?

Yeah, that's in the rulebook.
3 max dressed but you can have more then 3.
https://www.tsn.ca/logan-couture-named-san-jose-sharks-captain-1.1364339
 
I think they should hold off until the start of the game. Left the captain do the pre-game skate with the A and the. As they announce the players...

If it is JT they could announce Barrie (93) and the the last player would be JT and announce him as the captain. Big pop from the crowd and good energy to start the game. And it avoids a silly press conference.
 
We are the Toronto Maple Leafs! Forget about what the rest of the NHL does.  Let's buck the trend and have a rotating Captaincy.  John Tavares Captains the Home games, Auston Matthews Captains the American Away games, and Morgan Rielly Captains the Canadian Away games.  The other two are then the A's.  I don't care if this is not the norm, but we should do it anyway. 
 
https://twitter.com/PuckDontLie/status/1179095515562201095
After the second glass his wife will caution him to "slow down there chief".

https://twitter.com/_nickrichard/status/1179171505621606406
"BAH GAWD THAT'S JOHN TAVARES' MUSIC!!!"
 
I would laugh and wouldn't have a problem with it, if they gave it to Marner. Hometown boy. Does probably more in the community then anyone. Has the best attitude and interacts the best with the fans..
WHY NOT MITCH???
 
Something to maybe consider with regards to the Captaincy is that while things like the fairly nebulous quality of "leadership" is important, it is also very much about being the public face of the organization and representing the team at various events and things.

As a result, there is a chance that Tavares may not be the best fit because he just started a family and may not want to spend a bunch of nights out at charity dinners and general gladhanding. Sundin, who was as public a face as the franchise had, was able to be as good at that side of the job as he was because he didn't have a family until he stopped playing.
 
Difference between Canada and the US? Maybe Auston was in St. Thomas recently?

https://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/news/local-news/pantless-man-earns-warning-from-police
 
Guilt Trip said:
I would laugh and wouldn't have a problem with it, if they gave it to Marner. Hometown boy. Does probably more in the community then anyone. Has the best attitude and interacts the best with the fans..
WHY NOT MITCH???

I was thinking the exact same thing. No one is talking about Marner being a candidate.

I'd actually love it if he skated onto the ice tonight sporting the 'C'. Not just because it would shock a lot of people, and be hilarious in doing so, but I think he would do a great job representing the team and play that role well!
 
It would be kind of weird to name someone captain after you just had a long and protracted contract negotiation which seemed to hinge on the fact that the team didn't think he was as valuable as several of his teammates.
 
I don't think really rings true. He's got the 7th highest AAV in the league and third-highest on the team. His AAV only varies from Tavares's by 1%. He's clearly valued in the top rung of the team and league.
 
Bullfrog said:
I don't think really rings true. He's got the 7th highest AAV in the league and third-highest on the team. His AAV only varies from Tavares's by 1%. He's clearly valued in the top rung of the team and league.

Right but it was reported quite a bit that the specific sticking point was Marner's salary vs. Matthews' salary and if you look over the thread, which is a chore I know, there was an awful lot of "No way does he deserve what Matthews got".

Which, again, would be a strange thing for a team to do while simultaneously thinking that he's the guy they want as the public face of the franchise. Especially when you consider that the protracted negotiation led to a lot of vocally expressed negative feelings towards Marner by some of the talk radio call-in dopes.

A comparison I might make is to Chicago and Toews. It's pretty tough to justify Toews getting the deals he did aside from Chicago wanting to make it very clear that they value him just as much as Kane.
 
This was really always a 3-person race and Marner just wasn't one of those 3.

Just to look at the points made from the previous post:

Hometown boy -> Sure, so is Tavares
Does probably more in the community then anyone -> I don't think we have any actual way of knowing this. We know Matthews has done a lot of work with Sick Children that he hasn't wanted to be really made public
Has the best attitude and interacts the best with the fans -> Again, very very debatable. Rielly in particular seems like an absolute champ when it comes to making time for fans
 
CarltonTheBear said:
This was really always a 3-person race and Marner just wasn't one of those 3.

Agreed.  However, he would be the only true sleeper candidate. 

EDIT:  Well, if Babcock was owner, President, and GM, then Hyman would probably be a sleeper candidate too.
 
It's pretty unlikely but if they are committed to naming someone as Captain and they want it to be Matthews eventually but think recent events may indicate he needs more seasoning, I wonder if a short term solution along the lines of giving it to Muzzin would be the move. He's got the whole "Cup Champion" thing going for him and unlike Rielly or Tavares he's likely to not be around in a couple years.
 

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