Toronto Maple Leafs Name Their New Captain

Overtime Heroics Editorial

2164 days ago

Since the Maple Leafs traded Dion Phaneuf in February 2016 the team has had no captain. For three seasons the fans had been guessing as to who the next captain will be? When will we find out? Both those questions were answered last night when John Tavares was named the 25th captain in franchise history.

Near the end of this year’s preseason the Maple Leafs informed us that a new captain would be named for this season. Then the team said we would have to wait until the home opener to find out who it was. This furthered the guessing game among fans as to who will it be? Many thought it would be Morgan Rielly because of his long tenure with the team. Others thought it would be the very talented young superstar Auston Matthews. In the end the team chose to go with the ten year veteran Tavares.

Tavares Finding out

The news was given to Tavares on Monday in the office of team general manager (GM) Kyle Dubas. When Tavares was called in to the GM’s office, little did he know what surprise was waiting for him inside. As he entered the GM’s office Tavares saw his wife Aryne standing there holding their newborn son Jace who was wearing a Tavares jersey with the iconic ‘C’ on the front.

The idea of using baby Jace to break the news to Tavares came from Steve Keogh the Director of Media Relations. As for why Keogh decided to do it this way? He was quoted as saying “I know how important family is to John”. With regards to wife Aryne’s involvement Keogh said “She did a good job of keeping close”.

Over the next two days everyone who knew had to keep it a secret until the big reveal last night. During the pregame skate many reporters were reporting that none of the players had letters on their jerseys. We all had to wait until the player introductions were made right before puck drop to find out. The suspense built when the arena PA Announcer Mike Ross announced “Now for the captains”. First he announced the Alternate Captains which were Mitch Marner, followed by Auston Matthews and Morgan Rielly, Then came the big announcement that our new team Captain was John Tavares.

**Tavares wearing his Captains jersey before player introductions**
**at home opener**.

Dream Come True

Last summer when Tavares signed his seven year deal to play for his hometown Maple Leafs he considered it to be a dream come true. One year later he’s now the captain of his hometown team and the dream just keeps getting better. There is really only one more thing missing from the dream and it’s the Stanley Cup.

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