Don Cherry slams Maple Leafs over Auston Matthews captaincy.

Don Cherry returned from a long hiatus on his podcast this week and unfortunately for the Toronto Maple Leafs he had their organization squarely in his crosshairs.

Cherry spoke on a number of topics over the course of his podcast but at the forefront of his mind was the recent decision from the Maple Leafs tp strip longtime captain John Tavares of the captaincy in order to name star forward Auston Matthews the new captain of the franchise. It was a decision that the former National Hockey League head coach turned longtime NHL analyst clearly did not agree with at all.

Cherry began by stating he believes that the new Maple Leafs structure under Brad Treliving and Craig Berube likely orchestrated the move themselves.

"I think they sat down and said 'We need a new captain,'" said Cherry on his podcast.

Cherry went a step further and added he believes the Maple Leafs will extend Tavares on a new deal as part of larger effort to smooth over the decision to strip him of his captaincy.

"I really believe they went to Tavares and they said 'Look we'll give you another couple years,'" added Cherry.

The reason Cherry believes that some type of deal had to be struck with Tavares is due to the fact that Cherry views the decision to remove the captaincy from him as fundamentally disrespectful.

"It is a slap in the face, I don't care what anybody says," said Cherry his tone growing serious. "To take the captaincy off of one player and give it to another, there's something wrong somewhere."

All that being said I do believe the Leafs handled what could have been a very awkward transition about as well as they could, one that Cherry believes now puts a great deal of pressure on the shoulders of the team's star forward.

"It's all up to Matthews now," said Cherry in conclusion.

Let me know what you think of Cherry's thoughts in the comments.