"The Toronto Maple Leafs could possibly go into another season without a captain. The team hasn't had a captain since the the 2015-16 season when Dion Phaneauf was with the team and could easily go into their third straight season without one. Obviously the two big names everybody has highlighted are Auston Matthews and John Tavares. If Matthews gets the call, the young Leafs forward says he's ready."Yeah, I would tell them yeah," Matthews told The Athletic's Jonas Siegel.' "I'd tell them I'd feel ready. I don't know what they're thinking about doing, what they want to do.
"Obviously John (Tavares) has been the captain in New York for a while. So I don't know what they're thinking or what their whole ideal situation is for that. But I don't think it really changes much, whether you have a letter or not, for myself or anybody. I go lead by example, on the ice, off the ice, and being a good teammate is a big part of that, too."While Tavares has been a captain a before, including his time with the New York Islanders, Matthews has never been a captain before in his hockey career. "I've never really thought about (being a captain), honestly," he told Siegel. "When I played I was always the younger guy on the team so I was never a captain. I was an assistant captain at the (U.S. development) program. Playing in Europe obviously (I was) a young guy. It's something I've never really thought about too much.
"But obviously you come into a situation like this and it's something that if it happens then you definitely embrace it and accept it, and if doesn't you go about your business and your thing the same way."Who do you think will be the 18th captain in team history?"
