Maple Leafs President Brendan ...

It's not an easy ask, but the Toronto Maple Leafs wanted to be sure it was handled correctly. The club officially unveiled Auston Matthews as their 26th captain in franchise history on Wednesday. John Tavares officially handed the 'C' to Matthews in front of teammates and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment staff. The front office team began discussing the possibility of moving the captaincy to Matthews shortly after the club was eliminated in the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. But they weren't going to make the change without Tavares' blessing. Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan was delicate in the approach. I actually went over to John's house and sat with him in his backyard and Aryne was there and really talked to him about this and to gauge his comfortability when this was first being talked about, Shanahan said. From there the idea became a full-on ask from Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving. He understood my thoughts on it. We had a couple of discussions, but from the moment it was raised, he understood, Treliving said of Tavares. As he said to me, he knew at some point this day was coming. From there, it was up to Tavares to agree to the move and after giving it some thought he agreed it was best for the club. The way Tre, Brendan, and the club have communicated to me has been tremendous and working together. I took time to then think about things and look at our team, look at Auston, myself, everything as a whole and try to be very, you know, just try to be very aware, process of where things were at, Tavares said. It just made a lot more sense and felt more and more right to me as time went on, as I thought about it and through my conversations with Tre.