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Neither Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello nor head coach Mike Babcock are interested in discussing the team’s decision to forgo naming a captain for the time being, but the broad assumption among fans is that the post is being held for budding superstar Auson Matthew.Chris Young/The Canadian Press

There is a long history of drama surrounding the captains of the Toronto Maple Leafs, dating to the 1970s.

But any number of players will say it is drama only to the fans and the media. Inside the dressing room, the issue of who the team captain is, or when he will be appointed, rarely comes up. It also seems to be a phenomenon largely confined to Canadian-based NHL teams, which are the subject of so much interest that even side issues can dominate the discussions.

"In all the years I played, in all the teams I played on, I don't think it was an issue at all," said Mark Osborne, who saw several such controversies in his eight seasons with the Leafs in the 1980s and 1990s. "I don't recall even having conversations with teammates who were really worried about things like that.

"Does that happen in other places? It seems to be in a few markets and it happens to be in Canadian markets because you look and see the Florida Panthers never seem to have an issue. You've got a fourth-line player, Derek McKenzie, being your [Panthers] captain. But it's a big deal when you're talking about an iconic franchise."

The captain debate cannot even be escaped when the Maple Leafs are in the midst of becoming an NHL contender. Management announced recently the post will be vacant for the second season in a row since the last Leaf captain, Dion Phaneuf, was traded to the Ottawa Senators. There will be alternate captains instead. "When it's the right time, there will be a captain," general manager Lou Lamoriello said.

Neither Lamoriello nor head coach Mike Babcock is interested in discussing the matter, but the assumption is the post is being held for budding superstar Auston Matthews, who just turned 20. If a team has a generational player such as Matthews, the custom in the NHL has long been to award the C to him. Connor McDavid, who is nine months older than Matthews, already has his from the Edmonton Oilers. Matthews claims he doesn't think about it.

But Leafs management is carefully protecting Matthews, as well as the rest of the team's large group of youngsters, from the scrutiny of Canada's largest and often craziest hockey market. Last season, for example, Matthews and the other eight or so rookies on the Leafs were not allowed to do in-game interviews.

That does not mean the debate doesn't rage around them. It sure did after the no-captain announcement on the first day of training camp. Other issues, such as the NHL's crackdown on slashing and faceoffs, and how Joffrey Lupul's social-media posting is giving the Leafs salary-cap headaches, are distracting the talkers now, but the captain debate will resurface regularly.

And just as in Osborne's day, the present-day Leafs will remain blissfully ignorant of the fuss.

"It's not a topic of conversation among the players anywhere I've been," said Leafs defenceman Ron Hainsey, who arrived this summer as a free agent after 14 seasons with five teams. "I went through most of the year without a captain in Carolina last year and it was never brought up. So far it hasn't here. It's a media-fan talking point, certainly, but very little concern to the players."

The reason the issue does not bother the players is that NHL teams reflect any group of people in society, relatively speaking. You have extroverts, introverts, a couple of class clowns and a couple of leadership personalities most of the others respect. There is likely to be more of the latter, since NHL teams are made up of players who were the best on their teams at some point along the way.

It doesn't matter if management appoints a captain – and that is how it happens these days in the NHL – a team's leaders emerge naturally. In many cases, one of these leaders is the captain but sometimes he isn't and the players consider one or two others the real leaders on the team.

Certainly, given the responsibilities that go along with being captain, especially on Canadian teams, there are lots of qualified players who want no part of the job. Being captain means having to talk to the media every day, no matter if anything you did was newsworthy, and you are the first choice to attend any number of public functions.

Mats Sundin, for example, dutifully made himself available during his 10 seasons as Leaf captain with only a few exceptions. He was considered an exemplary captain but never said anything memorable.

"When you … need access to this player every game, most players have been trained four or five times to purposely say nothing," Hainsey said. "So why do you want to talk to them? Who cares if you have access to him every day if he's been trained to skillfully say absolutely nothing for six months?

"The media doesn't seem to take that well. They talked to [New York Yankees captain] Derek Jeter for 20 years and he never said one word. So why they wanted to keep talking to him after a decade of nothing I could never figure it out. He just never said a thing."

Even if their words weren't memorable, there have been many unforgettable controversies surrounding Leaf captains over the years. Then again, this may have more to do with Harold Ballard, a sure top-two pick on any list of the worst sports-team owners in history.

The first contretemps under Ballard's ownership was with Dave Keon. In 1975, Keon came off a personal-best 43 assists the previous season, but Ballard questioned Keon's leadership and refused to offer him a contract. That was the beginning of a long estrangement from the Leafs that ended only last year after many entreaties from successive management regimes.

Four years later, Leafs GM Punch Imlach started a war, with the approval of Ballard, with captain Darryl Sittler. The final straw came when Lanny McDonald, Sittler's best friend, was traded and Sittler resigned the captaincy, symbolically tearing the C off his sweater.

In 1985, Rick Vaive was stripped of the C when he overslept and missed a practice. It was a harsh punishment for the Leafs' first 50-goal scorer.

There was one Ballard move on a captain that actually worked out, although it was more by accident. The captain's post was vacant in the summer of 1989 when veteran defenceman Rob Ramage came to the Leafs in a trade. Without talking to his GM or coach, Ballard appoined Ramage captain before he even arrived in Toronto.

This set off a furor because the fan favourite was hard-nosed scorer Wendel Clark, who turned 23 in October, 1989. Clark, who was a little on the young side to be captain, was not the type of person to say anything about the possible slight and things worked out despite Ballard.

"I don't think they necessarily wanted to pin that on [Clark] at such an early age," said Osborne, who was on that Leaf team. "Probably by default at that time, organizations may have been leery to give players that young the captaincy. Today it's less intimidating.

"You ended up having Harold [Ballard] make the announcement before it was discussed internally with coaches and stuff. [Ramage] was a veteran by that time, he won a Stanley Cup. There were a lot of characteristics that certainly would have led to [Ramage] being captain material. There were no issues with the guys on the team."

Ballard died in April, 1990, but Ramage's departure was handled as poorly as his predecessors'. He was left exposed in the expansion-dispersal draft of 1991 and claimed by the Minnesota North Stars.

This cavalier treatment continued in the post-Ballard era. Clark replaced Ramage as captain and was traded in 1994, although it was for Sundin. Doug Gilmour took over from Clark, but he was traded in 1997 when Leafs owner Steve Stavro ordered the payroll cut. Then it was Sundin's turn as he was sent packing as a free agent in 2008, although the fans had a hand in that one by demanding he offer himself as trade bait for draft picks and prospects.

Phaneuf, the last Leafs' captain, was never suited for the role, but gave it his best. Brian Burke, the GM at the time, pulled off a great trade to get him but pushed him into the captain's job as well as No. 1 defenceman, another role he was ill-suited for.

Despite all of the nonsense, Osborne points out the Leafs have been well-served over the years by many of the captains. And it can be an important role in a hockey-mad city if the right person has it.

Soccer is the one sport that treats the captain's job in the same way as hockey. A big part of Toronto FC's success in the past two years is because of the presence of team captain Michael Bradley. He has the unmistakable bearing of a leader and his presence is felt throughout the organization.

"It's an honour. With it comes certain privileges but also responsibility," Bradley said. "It's more about being ready and willing to take on responsibility. To take as much on your shoulders as possible, to lead in the good moments but also in the bad moments. To understand you can't have it only one way.

"With the honour and privilege and responsibility comes this idea you don't get to pick and choose when you want to lead, when you don't, when you want to take responsibility, when you don't."

Leafs centre Dominic Moore says whoever becomes captain has to be comfortable in the role, like his former teammate Ryan McDonagh, who was appointed New York Rangers captain three years ago at the age of 25.

"I think there's a level that goes with that, and he'd be the first to tell you there's a comfort level to that," Moore said. "Then again, you have to be put into that in order to gain that comfort level."

In the meantime, Moore says the Leafs are not going to lack for leadership.

"I think for sure a team requires every member to be a leader in their own way," he said. "There's an onus on everyone to be leader at different times."

Defenceman Morgan Rielly says the Maple Leafs need to put in a lot of work to get to where they want to be at the end of the season. As Toronto kicked off training camp on Thursday, forward Auston Matthews added that consistency is key.

The Canadian Press

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