Matthews joins long list of Maple Leafs greats to be captain

13 of previous 25 in franchise history in Hockey Hall of Fame, including Keon, Sundin

By Auston Matthews standards — indeed, by any standard — the naming of Ken Randall as the first of 26 captains in Toronto Maple Leafs history was small-print news.

“Randall To Captain The Toronto Pros,” the Toronto Star headlined a story published Dec. 10, 1917.

The single paragraph report accurately predicted that the 5-foot-10, 180-pound veteran from Kingston, Ontario, would be named captain of the team for the NHL’s inaugural 1917-18 season, also serving in that role in 1918-19.

In fact, the franchise wouldn’t be named the Maple Leafs until 1927. It was first known as the Torontos or Arenas, then the St. Patricks, before Conn Smythe bought the team, rebranded it with its current name and built Maple Leaf Gardens as its home.

The Stanley Cup champion 1921-22 Toronto St. Pats, forerunners of the Maple Leafs. The franchise’s first captain, Ken Randall, is seated far right. Reg Noble, captain of this team, is seated third from left. Two other future Toronto captains were in this lineup: Babe Dye (beside Randall) and goalie John Ross Roach (standing far right).

On Wednesday, the Maple Leafs announced that Matthews would succeed John Tavares to become the 26th captain in franchise history. Thirteen of the 25 are enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Ten have had their numbers retired by the team, banners hanging above the ice at Scotiabank Arena.

Three times in history, Toronto has played without a captain: three seasons, from 2016-19, between Dion Phaneuf‘s Feb. 9, 2016, trade to the Ottawa Senators and the naming of Tavares on Oct. 2, 2019; two seasons, from 2008-10, between Mats Sundin and Phaneuf; and three seasons, from 1986-89, between Rick Vaive and Rob Ramage.

It seemed certain that Toronto would begin its NHL life with a captain, even if there were no fireworks of the announcement in 1917, or a “C” sewn on a wool sweater.

Maple Leafs captain Syl Apps with coach Hap Day and the stovepipe-design 1947 Stanley Cup.

“The chances are that Ken Randall will captain the Toronto professional hockey team this season,” the Star reported atop a hockey notebook nearly 107 years ago. “He has not been named yet and Manager Charlie Querrie refuses to confirm or deny the story that Randall is to lead the Blue Shirts. But just the same, a ticket on Randall at about 8 to 5 would be a fair bet.”

The captaincy was confirmed by the Star with a single sentence two days later.

Randall had a rich Canadian hockey pedigree, his minor pro teams in Saskatchewan including the wonderfully named Saskatoon Hoo-Hoos and Saskatoon Real Estates before he skated into the pre-NHL National Hockey Association from 1911-17.

“If Querrie selects Randall, he will have a good, sane leader,” the Star story continued, adding that the versatile forward and defenseman “is quiet and game, popular with his comrades and has plenty of experience. He has proven his ‘never-say-die’ spirit in some pretty tough games and if he only has the faculty of shooting the same spirit into his teammates, he will make a good leader.”

Captain Ted “Teeder” Kennedy between Maple Leafs executives Frank “King” Clancy (left) and Clarence “Hap” Day in this late 1940s or early 1950s photo taken at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Somehow, Randall didn’t make the score sheet in the Arenas’ historic first game, a 10-9 road loss to the Montreal Wanderers on Dec. 19, 1917, but he did take 14 penalty minutes with a major and a hat trick of three-minute minors, sitting in the box for four of Montreal’s goals.

The best story about Toronto’s maiden captain, who led his team to the NHL’s inaugural Stanley Cup championship, might have come when the fledgling NHL suspended him late in the season for his failure to pay $35 in fines for a lengthy list of misdemeanors.

Randall finally brought $32 in paper and, in protest, 300 pennies to a February 1918 game. When the NHL refused the coins, Randall placed the sack of coppers on the ice, the game delayed after an Ottawa player swatted the bag and players on both teams scrambled around the rink to collect them, harvesting an unexpected bonus.

Also in the running for captain that season was defenseman Harry Cameron, who had been working in munitions for Canada’s war effort during the summer of 1917.

“Cameron has been handling 90-pound shells for six months,” the Star reported. “If tossing those babies around improves the speed of his shots, the other clubs better conscript a few dozen extra goalkeepers.”

George Armstrong, who was captain of the Maple Leafs from 1957-69, was a four-time Stanley Cup champion who led Toronto to the 1967 title, the most recent for the franchise. At right, Armstrong with the 1962 Cup, his first of four.

Seven captains followed Randall through the 1920s, including Jack Adams, the future Detroit Red Wings architect for whom the NHL coach of the year award is named; John Ross Roach, who succeeded Adams as the unanimous choice of St. Pats players; and team icon and legendary executive Hap Day, who would coach the Maple Leafs to five Stanley Cup championships from 1942-49.

Future Hall of Famers Charlie Conacher, Syl Apps and Ted Kennedy would follow Day as captain, the great George Armstrong then leading the team from 1957-58 through 1968-69. The late legend known as “Chief” is the most recent Maple Leafs captain to hoist the Stanley Cup, winning in 1962, 1963, 1964 and finally 1967.

Armstrong played his entire 1,188-game career for Toronto between 1949-71, leading by low-volume example. His temperament was well suited to the job. In 1961 Smythe called him the best captain in team history.

Four more Hall of Famers have been among the nine captains who followed him — Dave Keon, from 1969-75; Darryl Sittler, 1975-81; Doug Gilmour, 1994-97; and Sundin, 1997-2008.

Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Jim Gregory welcomes star center Dave Keon to the captaincy of the team Oct. 31, 1969, succeeding the retired George Armstrong.

A teammate of Armstrong, Keon was a champion with the Maple Leafs four times in the 1960s, playing 1,062 games for Toronto over 15 seasons from 1960-75. One of the best checking forwards of his era with a gifted touch on offense, he was the 5-foot-9, 165-pound heart and soul of his teams.

But as intense as he was, Keon played within the rules. He picked up just 117 penalty minutes through his 18 NHL seasons — one more minute for his entire career than inaugural captain Randall was assessed in the 21 games of 1917-18.

Keon left Toronto in 1975 to play five seasons in the rival WHA, then skated his final three years with the Hartford Whalers. Captain of the Maple Leafs for six seasons, he led not with fire and brimstone speeches, but by inspiring, determined example.

Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin celebrates his goal scored Dec. 23, 2006, against the Washington Capitals at Air Canada Centre (now Scotiabank Arena).

On Wednesday, a slap shot from Scotiabank Arena, the Maple Leafs introduced their 26th captain. In the same restaurant Oct. 14, 2016, on the eve of the team’s centennial-season home opener, Keon was unveiled as the greatest Maple Leafs player of all time, so voted by fans and a media panel.

Two nights earlier, Matthews played his first game for Toronto, scoring four goals in a 5-4 loss at the Ottawa Senators.

Keon’s bronze statue, and those of seven fellow former captains, stand at 110 percent of life size in a group of 14 icons on Legends Row in Maple Leaf Square. Don’t think that Matthews doesn’t see that immortal lineup and understand that he has very large skates to fill, a single new letter on his jersey adding to the mighty weight of expectation in Leafs Nation.