Craig Berube says leadership in Maple Leafs’ dressing room extends beyond captain, alternates

The Toronto Maple Leafs will be starting the season with three captains — Auston Matthews as team captain, with John Tavares and Morgan Rielly as alternates. To Craig Berube, that’s more than enough.

It’s a slight change from last season, when Rielly and Mitch Marner would alternate wearing the ‘A’ on their jersey, and Berube quickly made it clear that the Leafs wouldn’t be adding a third alternate captain to replace Marner. That’s not an indictment of who he believes is capable of being a leader in that dressing room – quite the opposite, actually. Berube says he thinks there are more players in the dressing room who are capable of wearing letters than he feels it’s necessary that the team has.

“We’re gonna leave the ‘A’s where they’re at right now,” Berube said on his plans for the leadership group. “I don’t think we need a rotation. It’s more of a leadership group –  the captain and two assistants. We have four or five other guys who could easily have an ‘A’ on their jersey, but there’s no need for that. You can still lead without one, and we have that leadership group.”

Berube is pretty accurate in his assessment of having four of five other guys who are capable. Chris Tanev, Jake McCabe, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Scott Laughton, and Brandon Carlo are all veterans who have been around long enough to have an impact on some of the younger players. Then, of course, there’s William Nylander, who Berube believes has another gear in him from a leadership standpoint.

“He had a great year, we want him to have another great year,” Berube said of Nylander. “Obviously, production wise, we need him to score goals and we need him to do things that he does with his skill. For me, I think he could take a bigger step in a leadership role. He’s been a player a long time on this team, he’s been around these guys, we lost a player so, in my opinion, Willy can step up and take on a bigger leadership role here.”

When asked what taking a bigger leadership role means for somebody like Nylander, Berube said it can come in many different forms, whether from a vocal standpoint or an example standpoint.

“I think, stepping up in the dressing room, on the bench, it’s the voice, for me, more than anything,” Berube said. “Leading with playing the right way, things like that. That to me is leadership. Taking care of your teammates, helping them out in situations, maybe they need a little kick in the ass, you know, that’s all leadership to me.”

The Maple Leafs, equipped with no more than three jerseys with a letter on it, are in Ottawa to open the preseason against the Senators on Sunday