Babcock has 'strong feeling' Maple Leafs captain will be obvious

Mike Babcock is confident there won't be any disagreement within the Toronto Maple Leafs organization about the team's next captain.

Toronto's head coach expressed as much to The Athletic's Jonas Siegel earlier this week, before Auston Matthews' disorderly conduct charge came to light.

"Yeah, you know what, what's interesting about captaincies, it's really interesting to me," Babcock said. "When you name a captain, if you do it right, the players think they picked him, the owner thinks he picked him, the manager thinks he picked him, the coach thinks he picked him, because it's obvious to you. It's all the same guy. I have a strong feeling in the end that's what it'll be like here."

Leafs president Brendan Shanahan said earlier in September that he believes the team will name a captain this season.

Matthews and John Tavares were prodded about the club's captaincy throughout the offseason, while Morgan Rielly remains a worthy candidate.

Tavares wore the 'C' for five seasons with the New York Islanders before signing with Toronto in the summer of 2018.

The Leafs have gone without a captain since trading away Dion Phaneuf in 2016.

Copyright (C) 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.