Going without a team captain is not unprecedented in the recent history of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
After Rick Vaive was stripped of the captaincy and traded to Chicago in 1987, the club went captain-less for three seasons. Following the departure of Mats Sundin in 2008 after a decade at the helm, the Leafs waited until the summer of 2010 to name Dion Phaneuf his successor.
With a franchise in transition and a roster packed with youngsters, it is possible that Toronto will go into their centennial season without someone wearing the “C”, but Team President Brendan Shanahan is not ruling out the possibility of a captain being named before the start of the regular season.
“It’s something we’ll probably get together on — Lou(Lamoriello), myself, Mike Babcock — and talk about a little bit more when we get closer to camp,” Shanahan said to the
Sun’s Lance Hornby. “Maybe even at the end of camp.”
The problem for the rebuilding club is that there is not an obvious choice. That would have been the case had they been able to bring Steven Stamkos into the fold in July.
Defenseman Morgan Rielly has leadership abilities and is part of the long term plans after signing a six-year, $30 Million extension last April, but Babcock may want the 22-year-old to concentrate more on being a top pairing defenseman instead of the off-the-ice responsibilities that goes with being the captain.
Tyler Bozak(2009), Nazem Kadri(2010) and James van Riemsdyk(2012) are the longest tenured Leafs, but the organization has been systematically moving out most of the players inherited from the Burke/Nonis era and may not want to promote someone to the captaincy that they plan on moving out of the organization in the near future.
Brooks Laich could be a stopgap choice if the plan is to name Rielly in a year or two. The veteran forward was acquired at the trade deadline last February and being promoted to captain so soon after being acquired is not unprecedented.
Phaneuf played just 26 games before being named, while Rob Ramage was acquired from the Stanley Cup champion Calgary Flames in the summer of 1989 and was given the “C” without having played a game in Blue and White.
A popular choice with fans and teammates might be veteran winger Leo Komarov. The 29-year-old had a career-high 19 goals last season, is respected in the room, feisty on the ice and bridges the gap between North American and European players with his multi-lingual abilities.
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