NHL insider Chris Johnston revealed the real reason the Toronto Maple Leafs decided to take the captaincy away from John Tavares today. NHL insider Darren Dreger revealed this evening that the Toronto Maple Leafs will be replacing John Tavares with Auston Matthews as the team's next captain. The move comes out of no where as there was no indication that this move was coming, but is not entirely unsurprising considering how things have gone for the team lately. <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/DarrenDreger/status/1823131242553905294'> </a></blockquote></div> Shortly after Dreger made the Announcement, fellow insider Chris Johnston added some more details. First, he noted that the team will have a meeting on Wednesday of this week at 11AM EST to officially announce the move. More notably, he also revealed that talks about changing up the captaincy began as soon as the team lost to the Boston Bruins in game seven of the 1st round last may. <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/reporterchris/status/1823131587766321635'> </a></blockquote></div> This is also not particularly surprising as the Leafs have consistently lost in the first round of the playoffs in the 'Core-four' era. As such, it seems that the team thinks <a href='https://www.markerzone.com/news/index.php?no=416304' class='lien_marqueur' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>giving the Captaincy to Matthews</a> will solve the problem. That being said, some fans have criticized the team for making superficial changes like this while letting the roster stay largely the same. After all, it is the players on the ice that have the largest impact on the results of the games right? <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/Hockey_Robinson/status/1823134730012774450'> </a></blockquote></div> Many of these comments seem to be directed at Mitch Marner. After all, he is the most significant player on the team whom it would actually make sense to trade at this point. He only has one year left on his contract and has been the subject of much criticism from the fanbase for his lack of effort in the playoffs. Management seems to recognize this to an extent, but refuses to make a move that would actually carry risk. What will it take for the team to move on from their current roster? Another 1st round exit? Missing the playoffs altogether? Who knows where the bar is at this point.