It’s that time of year again. We’re only weeks from the opening of training camps in the NHL, and there’s still a number of teams that have yet to pick their next captain. While the attention, rightfully, is being paid this summer and fall to the large number of high-profile RFAs that have yet to sign their next contract, my focus goes toward who will get the “C” next. There can be any reason a team will hold off for a year or two, but that’s no fun is it?
As with previous years’ editions, I will consider three options for each team I think have the strongest cases to be the captain. Among the three, I will include at least one forward and one defenceman. A “strong case” is relative. A player without an objectively strong case may still have a strong case relative to the rest of his team. I will also consider the merit of not naming a captain. For each team, to see how the next captain will stack up, I will also include a recap of how each team’s previous captains did.
As with last year, each team will get its own individual entry.
Schedule
Carolina Hurricanes
- Jordan Staal
- Justin Williams
- Justin Faulk
Detroit Red Wings
- Justin Abdelkader
- Mike Green
- Dylan Larkin
New York Rangers
- Chris Kreider
- Brady Skjei
- Mika Zibanejad
Ottawa Senators
- Brady Tkachuk
- Bobby Ryan
- Thomas Chabot
San Jose Sharks
- Logan Couture
- Marc-Edouard Vlasic
- Brent Burns
Toronto Maple Leafs
- Auston Matthews
- Morgan Rielly
- John Tavares
Vancouver Canucks
- Elias Pettersson
- Alexander Edler
- Bo Horvat
Vegas Golden Knights
- Deryk Engelland
- Mark Stone
- William Karlsson
