Auston Matthews tried his best to suppress a smile as he climbed on stage at a press conference Wednesday.
But when Toronto general manager Brad Treliving announced Matthews as the next captain of the Maple Leafs, he couldn’t hold it in any longer.
“I got chills, honestly,” the star centre said. “I’m so honoured and humbled. Since being drafted here eight years ago, you realize how special it is to play for the city of Toronto, to wear the Maple Leaf on your chest.
“It just means the world to me.”
Matthews, 26, takes over the role from John Tavares, who had held the captaincy since 2019.
Treliving said he first approached Tavares about the change shortly after the Maple Leafs’ season ended with lost a seven-game first-round playoff loss to the Boston Bruins.
The GM, entering his second season with the club, said Tavares was on board “right from the start.”
“This wasn’t a hard conversation in the sense that John’s a really smart guy,” Treliving said. “At the end of the day everybody’s got the same goal, right? The goal here is to win. You’re always finding different ways that we could push that process along.
“John, right from the start, he’s seen the evolution of Auston. It was a smooth process.”
Tavares said he took some time to evaluate where the team was at following its sixth first-round loss in eight seasons, but concluded that now was the right time for the ‘C’ to move onto a player in the Leafs’ younger core.
“What Auston’s become as a player, as a leader, it just made a lot more sense and felt more and more right to me as time went on and as I thought about it and through my conversations with (Treliving),” Tavares said.
Tavares will remain part of the leadership group as an assistant captain next season, while Treliving said the rest of the assistants are yet to be determined.
In a show of support for the decision, Tavares’ wife and children attended the announcement near Scotiabank Arena at Real Sports Bar and Grill. The 33-year-old’s two sons, Jace and Axton, each wore Matthews jerseys.
“I think that was my one request today was them getting a couple jerseys, have Auston sign and add to their collection,” Tavares said. “It’s meant the world to myself and to my family. The way my boys have gotten to know Auston like all the other guys on the team have been amazing.”
Matthews said he didn’t know the kids would be wearing his sweater.
“It was pretty cool to see them wearing the 34 with a ‘C’ on it,” he said.
Matthews’ parents, Brian and Ema, were also on hand, as were teammates Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly and former captains Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark.
Toronto Argonauts general manager Michael (Pinball) Clemons was also there.
Matthews signed a four-year, US$53 million contract extension last August that kicks in for the upcoming season. Tavares, meanwhile, is scheduled to hit free agency next summer.
In his time with the Maple Leafs, Matthews has collected plenty of hardware. He won the 2017 Calder Trophy as top rookie, the 2022 Hart Trophy as MVP and is a three-time Rocket Richard Trophy recipient, including last year when he scored a career-high 69 goals.
But he managed just one marker while battling injury in five playoff games against the Bruins last season and is still looking to add a Stanley Cup to his collection.
“Obviously we have one goal in mind and that’s to win. … For myself I’m not going to be yelling at people or anything,” Matthews said. “It’s just continue to evolve as a leader and lead by example and continue to put my best every day,”
“We have a lot of great leaders on this team, great players and it’s important for us to be on each other.”
Treliving called Matthews a “natural leader.”
“He recognizes his surroundings. He knows what’s going on. He knows when somebody is maybe not having a great day,” Treliving said. “He’s got a real ability to connect and reach people. And he’s a guy that people are drawn to.”
The captaincy switch marks the second major leadership shakeup of the Maple Leafs’ off-season after head coach Sheldon Keefe was fired and replaced by Craig Berube, who won a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues in 2019.
On the ice, Toronto signed veteran free-agent defencemen Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson to multi-year deals while also bringing in goalie Anthony Stolarz and re-signing forward Max Domi.
Treliving said Berube was aware of the captaincy process but didn’t play a major role as he’s still getting to know the players.
Tavares and Matthews spoke of the decision being mad to get the team to “the top of the mountain,” but Berube said that it’s a process reaching that pinnacle.
“Auston’s going to learn a lot on the way too and he has learned a lot from John Tavares obviously and other leaders in this organization that they’ve had,” Berube said.
“He just needs to be himself and go out and play at a high level like he does. Obviously there’s other things being the captain now that you’ve gotta take care of but those are all things that we’ll talk about.”
The Maple Leafs will kick off a six-game pre-season schedule on Sept. 22 against the Ottawa Senators before opening their regular season in Montreal on Oct. 9.
