Matthews is now the captain of the Toronto Maple Heaps. John Tavares handing it off. Apparently, this happened over the course of a few weeks, where at the end of season meetings, John sat down with Bradja Living and Brandon Shanahan. They broached the idea. They had discussions about it. Shanahan went to Tavares' house, make sure he was okay with it.

It was a process. It wasn't just, Oh, John, give me that shit. It was a process. Yeah.

And John is graciously passing the baton on to Austin Matthews. What was interesting to me about the story, guys, and I don't know if this was your experience with it, but I thought most Lee fans were like, Yeah, okay. There's no any hot takes about it.

No, I mean, listen, the mood in Leifs Nation is poor. It's not good. There's obviously a lot of fans who are stoked. A lot of fans listening right now going, Well, that doesn't describe me. And I understand that. And it's not just my view of the team, but like, dude, they just lost in the first round again. They talked about everything's on the table, and then as close to nothing happening happened. As Most of nothing happening as possible happened, basically. Nothing from the core. And they made a couple of good signings. It's been a very boring offseason. And they're taking a C from Taveras's Jersey, and they're putting it on Matthew's. And a lot of pessimists are like, All right, what's that supposed to do? Is that going to help him score in the play? What is that supposed to do? I think That's why it felt-Not going to not give him the flu.

We'll put it that way.

Yeah. I just feel like it felt flat.

Yeah, I liked it.

Once the games start, once they take to the ice again and they announced Austin and they announced him last because he's the captain, everyone's going to feel really excited. And it's going to be the stories write themselves. And I'm sure he'll have a big first game because he always does. And then it'll be about the sea. But in terms of it as a summer story, I'm not surprised people didn't care all that much.

I thought it was a little premature to remove the captain seat from Tavares. I think if his contrast come into an end this season, there's a natural conclusion and a transition to a new era. I I thought the way CJ put it in his article in The Athletic, where he started his second paragraph. I'll just read it to you right now, I have it up. No matter how many different angles you try to see it from, no matter how favorably the acts and timelines and facts, I'm sorry. Timelines in chain of conversations might be rearrange. There's simply no way to spend the trial and make police decision as a positive outcome for the well-respected forward. I think that rings very true in that if you're the captain of a team and your goal is to bring a Stanley to the organization and you want to be the captain. It's not like, John Taver no longer wants to be the captain. This had to be taken from him. It's a failure. I think it's tough for me to watch that. It was tough for me to watch that press conference because there's a guy whose goal is to win a Stanley Cup for the Leaps and be the captain of the team, and he didn't accomplish that and it's being taken from and given to Austin.

It was a little sad for me, I'm being honest.

I understand that feeling, and it makes perfect sense. I doubt he was like, That's a great idea, Brad. Hell, yeah. Hell, yeah. Take it from me. Give it to Austin and do whatever you want. I think he handled it with grace, not just literally passing the torch, handing the jersey to Austin.

Yeah, literally.

Literally passing the torch. All I needed was a literal torch. Very symbolic, really on the nose. But having his kids dressed in Matthew's jersey, he's like, You're putting someone else's name on your kids. That's a big deal. From an organizational standpoint, though, I do think this is the time to do it. Because this year... Listen, we know the Leifs are scared to death about the messaging of anything getting out of their control. And this year has the potential to really go off the rails in terms of messaging. If the fan base is to be feared, like the team seems to fear it, don't know why they sell tickets, Tavares has a contract expiring as a UFA, so that's your captain. We were just talking about Crosby, talking about Stamkos. Well, this is your captain heading into a year with no contract, and whether or not it even makes sense to, yeah, just let him walk or whatever. It's a story. And the deeper we get into the season, it's a story. And then the trade deadline passes and he's not traded, and all of a All of a sudden, you're heading into the playoffs and is this the last hurrah?

And that becomes a distraction. And Mitch. Tavares isn't even the lead's biggest pending unrestricted.

Yeah, that's 1A. 1a is Mitch. I think he's ahead of JT in terms of the UFA's.

Yes, but it depends on who you ask. Marner is the bigger star. He's the higher scorer. He's the better player. But Tavares is the captain. If you don't get out in front of one, you definitely can't get out in front of the other. Maybe you're limiting it to one headache now. This isn't a headache anymore. You know what I mean? I know it sucks for Tavares. I do. But for the Lefs, To me, this is business taken care of.

I think the way it fell flat, too, is that there was no lead up to it. I don't think they should have got ahead of it. I feel like if he's coming to an end of a contract and if he decides to move on, there's the captaincy leaving. It's easy that way. If he's resigning, then with the new contract, you usher in a new era. It just felt a little flat in the middle of the summer to do this all of a sudden at the beginning of the season when there was no real lead up for media-wise or team-wise.

Well, I think that part was on purpose. The no lead up part was for sure on purpose.

100%. The Leaps love not making noise, even though they're the noisiest franchise in the sport. I don't know. I thought it definitely fell flat in that it was a little rushed and early.

Why not fight for your throne? I see this is where you guys, I disagree with Jesse on this.

I think the problem here, why not fight for your throne, is exactly the reason why John's not captain anymore.

I meant the team.

I think in this particular case, and this is where I get frustrated with John, I watched him get ragged all the couple of times against the Bruins. I mentioned it on the show. Game three, Jesse and I were there, and I looked at Jesse and said, It would be nice if he showed some emotion sometimes. I think it is absolutely the right time. They need to have somebody... There was a time when this team looked to, if they were down, you could look to Tavares and you could look to Marner and Matthews, Neeland or whatever. I don't think those days where John is going to come out there and score the winning goal are the same anymore. I think it's Austin, Mitch, Willy, and then a little bit further, and then it's John.

Are we forgetting that he scored the OT winner to send the team?

Two seasons ago. What have you done for me lately? To send the team to the second round, the first playoff series win. And he did it on the island, too. But my point is that- You know what's crazy?

It's his shooting percentage was down, and there's reason to believe you could have a bounce back here.

I've been a Devorius booster the whole way. But I've thought for two years that Matthews is the real captain of this team, and I think you need a younger voice who's perhaps a little bit more passionate in the outward sense. It's not to say John's not driven. It's not to say John doesn't dedicate every second of his life, because we know he does, to being a better hockey player. We know that. Sometimes it's not just leading by example. Sometimes it's just like... I remember when I was growing up, I had this VHS of the Detroit Red Wings first Stanley Cup since the '50s, '50s, '60s or '60s. It was called the Hockey Town video.

Did you have that, too? I didn't, but our neighborhood was a huge Red Wings neighborhood.

Because of Draper, yeah. So I had it, and I remember they talk about in the playoffs, the type of leaders that they had, and specifically, Iserman. And there was a game where they were just terrible. Just a terrible... I think it was probably against the Ducks in the third round or whatever it was. And I guess Chris Draper is actually interviewed in this, and he's like, he talked about Iserman's reaction to it. And he's like, he didn't yell, he didn't scream. But he's like, we knew. We knew. And I feel like, especially for a younger guy, you look at a Matthew Nieser, an Easton Count or whatever coming up, they're going to look at Matthews and go, he's a fucking God. And whatever he says, I'm listening to it. And it's not that John isn't great, but his star is fading. And I don't know what-2009 was a long time ago.

What's that? 2009 was a long time.

And I don't know why. That's what he just picked. I don't know that that means that he's not going to get 80 points again this year. And if he did, it wouldn't surprise me. But the point is that for me, looking from the outside and Matthews is a new voice, it's not about being quiet when you lose. It's about being like, You guys better pull it together. I also think on the ice, having to deal with problems situationally, where they send the captain out there to talk to the ref. It's going to be him and Morgan Reilly doing that now. I think that's the way it should be. That's my personal opinion.

I think all the reasons you gave are the reasons that the Leifs probably decided to give Austin the captancy. Those are the reasons. But I still look at all that stuff. I'm like, Okay, if the Leifs thought like this, I still feel for the man who... Sure. They look at him as a failure.

I'm like, That sucks. I don't think they look at him as a failure because they They're saying you weren't enough to be captain anymore.

He wasn't. I don't know if I hold that-The San Jose Sharks did it to Joe Thornton. Yeah.

Or did they do it to Marlo to give it to Thornton? I can't even remember anymore. It was Marlo Thornton. I think it was Thornton And they were there for years afterwards, and I think made the finals afterwards.

I think, yes. Jesse, there's a flavor to this that reminds me of Jerome Ginnler had retirement forced upon him.

John Tavares had captancy, forcefully taken away from him. He did not choose.

The captancy that he got five years ago. A lot had an opportunity.

Half a decade, man. I think there was a natural conclusion coming in July first or whenever he signs the next deal, like if he takes a team discount, that felt like a natural transition into a new era.

I think you're really underestimating the distraction this was going to be. This was going to be bad.

We'll never know.

Yeah, good. Thank God. Because the Mitch contract thing is going to be-Yeah, now we're going to talk about Mitch Martner for 800 days in a row.

To be fair, I think with the I remember when the Lefs said everything was on the table and we were like, Okay, everything's on the table.

And they were like, But it isn't. Through their actions, right? You don't judge somebody on their words. You judge them by their actions.

Everything's on the table except a phone, apparently.

Oh, we simply couldn't. He could not. He's got a no trade. We simply couldn't call anybody else to see.

Everything meant nick Robertson is going to sit out.

Yeah. You know what? You know who we're breaking on the wheel? It's nick Robertson.

That's the big move, you guys.

We can't let these guys, these RFAs, get one over Tanev's the best right-handed shot they've had in literally a generation.

It's pathetic.

Oh, it's terrible.

It's pathetic, and yet, well, he's here now, so good. I'm going to ignore the amount of yours.

Tanev is not the pathetic part. It's the fact that they had not had a right shot defenseman in so long.

It's embarrassing. You know how most people enjoy their summers when I think about hockey?

Yeah.

Sean Dersy would have easily been the best right-handed leaf defenseman in 20 years.

Yeah.

Who would have been better?

He would have been. But we wouldn't have had Muzzen and Hall. We won't. And that would have been depressing. No, you know what?

We Muzzen, who was great. He was great. And then tie him to...

Oh, my fucking God. Justin Hall. But don't worry, Justin Hall is really good. The numbers back.