Auston Matthews Leads the Maple Leafs Without Saying Much

There are many ways to talk about Auston Matthews as the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. You can talk about the goals, the records, the pressure, the contract and all the expectations that come with being the guy wearing the C in Toronto. But every once in a while, somebody tells you a story that gets underneath all of that. Jack Roslovic did that this week.

Roslovic knew Matthews as a teenager, back when the two were coming through the U.S. National Team Development Program. So when he talks about Matthews, he's not just talking about the superstar everybody sees now. He's talking about the kid he watched when things weren't going particularly well. And that might tell us something about the Maple Leafs captain.

Roslovic Saw Matthews When Nobody Was Watching.

Roslovic's first memory of Matthews wasn't some spectacular goal or some ridiculous offensive play. It was Matthews dealing with a brutal injury and figuring out how to keep working anyway.

He remembers Matthews shooting pucks from a chair, working his upper body, studying the game and simply staying around the team. There wasn't much glamour in it. Anybody outside the room wouldn't have noticed much. He was a young player who couldn't do everything he wanted, so he found what he could and kept working. That's the part that stuck with Roslovic.

You hear a lot about leadership in professional sports. Usually it involves somebody giving a speech or saying the right thing in the dressing room. Maybe there is a big quote afterward about accountability or commitment. Matthews, at least in Roslovic's memory, was doing something much simpler.

He was working. That may actually be the better definition of leadership.

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Matthews Doesn't Have to Tell Everyone He's the Captain.

Roslovic said something else that caught my attention. He talked about Matthews continuing to work and trying to become the best player he could be even when things weren't going his way. That is a pretty good quality for a captain to have in Toronto.

The Maple Leafs don't need Matthews to stand up every morning and remind everybody that he's the captain. They don't need another speech about what the team has to accomplish. Toronto already has plenty of that. What they need is the example.

And that’s what makes Roslovic's story interesting. He saw Matthews before the captaincy, before the enormous contract, before the endless Toronto scrutiny. He saw him as a young player dealing with something that could have easily become an excuse to sit back and wait. Instead, Matthews found a way to work.

Roslovic's Point Was Pretty Simple.

For Roslovic, great players are great because they keep trying to get better. He wasn't talking about talent. Everybody in that development program already knew Matthews had talent. He was talking about the work behind it. Maybe that is still the best thing Matthews brings into this Maple Leafs room.

There will be nights when the Maple Leafs need him to score. There will be nights when they need him to take over a game. And there will be nights when things aren't going well, and everybody in the building is wondering what happens next. That's when leadership gets interesting. You don't always see it on the scoresheet.

Sometimes it looks like a kid sitting in a chair, shooting pucks and refusing to let an injury decide what kind of player he'll become. Roslovic saw that kid.

Now he's back beside the captain, years later, and he's seeing the finished product. Maybe the funny thing is that Matthews hasn't really changed that much.

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