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Maple Leafs name alternate captains, Tomas Kaberle not among them

Buffalo Sabres v Toronto Maple Leafs

TORONTO - SEPTEMBER 27: Tomas Kaberle #15 of the Toronto Maple Leafs shoots during warmup before a preseason NHL game at the Air Canada Centre September 27, 2010 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Abelimages/Getty Images)

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It wouldn’t be a Maple Leafs season without a little bit of controversy, right? Today, the Leafs announced who would be serving as the team’s alternate captains to team captain Dion Phaneuf. Not surprisingly, two defensemen were chosen. Surprisingly, one of them wasn’t a guy who served as an alternate captain in previous Leafs seasons and is the guy on the Leafs roster who has been there the longest.

As Tomas Kaberle enters the final year of his contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the veteran defenceman has been stripped of his alternate captain duties.

Leafs head coach Ron Wilson has announced that defencemen Mike Komisarek and Francois Beauchemin will serve as alternates this season, leaving Kaberle -- the longest-serving Maple Leaf on the current squad -- without a letter.

Kaberle, the second-highest scoring defenceman in Leafs franchise history, was one of three alternates last season and has worn the ‘A’ for several years. He has spent all 11 seasons of his NHL career with the Leafs.

Kaberle’s off-season with Toronto was a bit tumultuous with rumors about being traded, ultimately not being traded, and after all that, having his father claim that Kaberle
isn’t happy with Leafs head coach Ron Wilson. Throwing this sort of talk show fodder into the mix certainly won’t help keep things quiet in Toronto. For the Leafs, however, this captain crew shows the way the team wants to be lead. They want guys who are a physical presence and defensively tough to show the way to the rest of the team.

Of course, that would be the logical way to look at things. If we’re in the business of stirring up a hornet’s nest and causing trouble for everyone, we could call this Brian Burke and Ron Wilson’s revenge at Kaberle for all the discord over the last couple years and this is their way of getting one more shot in on him while he’s on the final year of his contract in Toronto. I think that paragraph now qualifies us for tabloid work in Toronto.

(Photo: Abelimages - Getty Photos)