Bryan Hayes opines John Tavares should willingly give up captaincy to $53,000,000 Maple Leafs star

By Evan Bell

Modified Jul 04, 2024 16:15 GMT

Longtime Maple Leafs veteran John Tavares is preparing to enter the final year of his contract this season. Despite staying healthy and playing in 80 games, Tavares finished the year with 29 goals and 36 assists, both down from last year.

His play contributed to an underwhelming season for the Maple Leafs, which saw them eliminated from the first round of the playoffs after a Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins. Given that and the fact that he's entering what is expected to be his final year with the Maple Leafs organization, TSN's Bryan Hayes believes that he should hand over his captaincy.

While speaking on Thursday, he named Auston Matthews, who signed a four year, $53 million contract last year, as the player to whom he should turn over his captaincy.

“I don’t think the organization should penalize John Tavares as if it’s his fault that they’re in the position they’re in," Hayes said.

"I think it would be an intriguing and possibly smart move for Tavares to read the tea leaves and proactively give the captaincy to Matthews, then take a step back in his final year in Toronto, if it is indeed going to be his final year.”

Nick Kypreos says the Maple Leafs are strongly considering stripping John Tavares of his captaincy.

If John Tavares doesn't hand over his captain's role to Auston Matthews, it sounds as though the Maple Leafs organization could strip him of the title.

According to Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos, the Leafs organization is considering stripping John Tavares of his captaincy and handing it over to Auston Matthews. During a recent episode of his Real Kyper and Bourne podcast, he relayed the information from his sources:

"From what I’m hearing, the Leafs are contemplating taking the captaincy away from him and giving it to Auston. They will talk about it. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but it’s real," Kypreos said.

Given that Tavares is from his hometown of Toronto and that he was the captain of the Islanders before, it wasn't shocking at first that he was named captain. However, the Maple Leafs haven't achieved the degree of success that many had anticipated.

This offseason, the Maple Leafs will be looking to bolster their forward lines in hopes of returning to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and making it past the first round.

So far, the team has made the most of the free agency period, signing Dakota Mermis, Phillipe Myers and Cedric Pare. As to what the next several weeks and months will hold for the team, only time will tell.