Every year it seems that a handful of teams in the NHL decide not to name a captain. There are good reasons to do this, including a lack of experienced players, a desire to not add undue pressure to a key player, or a rough stint by a recently outgoing captain. While those are all good reasons to hold off on bestowing the honour on a player, and one could argue that naming a designated leader figure is an outdated concept in today’s NHL, that doesn’t stop it from being a nice, harmless tradition, and it definitely won’t stop me from speculating on who could be the next captain for the teams yet to name a captain.
For this exercise, I have three rules. Firstly, I will list three potential candidates regardless of how strong or weak a case any one of those candidates has compared to the other two. Secondly, I will name at least one candidate at forward and at least one candidate on defence. Thirdly, I need to make a case for the team to not name a captain this season. And finally, I have to pick who, if it were up to me, would be the team captain effective opening night. I will also touch on, for each team, the job each of the three previous captains, plus the current captain for the teams listed that have them, have done to give an idea of what kind of shoes the next captain needs to fill.
Unlike last year, where I had the entire thing in one single column, each team I am discussing will get its own page.
Schedule
Friday, August 17: Arizona Coyotes
- Niklas Hjalmarsson
- Derek Stepan
- Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Saturday, August 18: Buffalo Sabres
- Jack Eichel
- Jason Pominville
- Rasmus Ristolainen
Tuesday, August 19: New York Islanders
- Nick Leddy
- Josh Bailey
- Mathew Barzal
Wednesday, August 20: New York Rangers
- Kevin Shattenkirk
- Mats Zuccarello
- Brady Skjei
Friday, August 21: Toronto Maple Leafs
- Auston Matthews
- Morgan Rielly
- John Tavares
Saturday, August 22: Vancouver Canucks
- Brock Boeser
- Alexander Edler
- Bo Horvat
Sunday, August 23: Vegas Golden Knights
- Deryk Engelland
- Reilly Smith
- Jonathan Marchessault
