Auston Matthews’ reign as the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs is officially underway.
Speaking of which, we kicked off the latest summer episode of Leafs Morning Take by discussing LeBron James, Jay Rosehill’s favourite athlete. In case you missed it, the NBA mega star took some heat for dispelling an autograph request from a kid outside a club following Team USA’s Gold medal win at the Olympics. Once again, Rosey did not hold back in sharing his true feelings on one of the greatest athletes of all time.
Presented by Greta Bar YYZ, we started by giving our initial thoughts on Wednesday’s press conference. From a PR standpoint, we both agreed that everything was well done. From what John Tavares had to say to his kids wearing an Auston Matthews jersey, all of it was handled with so much class and grace. Rehearsed or not, I thought that everyone involved did a fantastic job with narrative control. This was more about Auston Matthews’ evolution than it was about stripping John Tavares of the captaincy —at least that’s what they tried to convey. At any rate, it feels like the room is in a good place ahead of training camp next month.
After that, we weighed in on the reports that the Leafs and Tavares have had conversations about an extension. Maybe I’m missing something, but what’s the rush?
Meantime, we were fortunate enough to be joined by former Leafs assistant and Marlies head coach Dallas Eakins, who’s currently the head coach and general manager of Adler Mannheim in the DEL. He was fantastic. We talked about his life overseas, his admiration for Brad Treliving, Craig Berube, and Lane Lambert, and how he still pays close attention to the Maple Leafs.
Leafs Morning Take will be back on Tuesday at 11 AM ET!
You can subscribe to TheLeafsNation (TLN) YouTube page HERE. Additionally, check us out in podcast form wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure to leave us a 5-star review!
