The Captain! Who will lead their team to glory?
Will it be another North American captain? Or will we finally see the first European captain lead his team to the Cup?
TSN just released a good article on captains at:
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=178890&hubname=nhl
Sakic is the longest serving captain. Sundin 2nd. There are now more captains from overseas than ever before, 10 in total. Who will be victorious? Yet another North American, or will the trend shift?Joe Sakic begins the new season as the NHL’s longest-serving captain.
The 37-year-old centre inherited the distinction when Steve Yzerman retired after 20 years in the role with the Detroit Red Wings. Sakic was named captain of the Quebec Nordiques in 1992, and he has continued to lead the team since it moved to Denver and became the Colorado Avalanche in 1995. Mats Sundin, captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs since 1997, has the second-longest tenure. Montreal’s Saku Koivu and Ottawa’s Daniel Alfredsson assumed the responsibility in 1999, Vancouver’s Markus Naslund has had the distinction since 2000, Edmonton made Jason Smith captain in 2001 and Calgary gave the C to Jarome Iginla in 2003.
Others continuing on in the captain’s role are Mike Modano in Dallas, Scott Niedermayer in Anaheim, Olli Jokinen in Florida, Shane Doan in Phoenix, Patrick Marleau in San Jose, Mattias Norstrom in Los Angeles, Scott Mellanby in Atlanta, Alexei Yashin of the Islanders, Dallas Drake in St. Louis, Adrian Aucoin in Chicago and Rod Brind’Amour of the Hurricanes.
Nine of the 30 teams will have new or no captains.
Centre Peter Forsberg takes over in Philadelphia from the retired Keith Primeau.
Adam Foote, is the new captain of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Luke Richardson was captain last year before being traded.
Defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom is expected to take over from Yzerman in Detroit. If not him then Zetterberg.
Star right-winger Jaromir Jagr is expected to be named captain of the New York Rangers.
Tim Taylor is the new captain of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Chris Clark takes over in Washington.
Nashville will name a new captain to replace Greg Johnson, who now is in Detroit, before the start of the season. Prime candidates are Paul Kariya, Kimmo Timonen and Steve Sullivan.
Boston hasn’t had a captain since Joe Thornton was traded last Nov. 30, and the Bruins have yet to make an announcement for this season.
New Jersey went without a captain last season and nobody has been tabbed for the C thus far.
The Minnesota Wild select a different captain each month.
Pittsburgh has decided it won’t have a captain.
Teen sensation Sidney Crosby will ascend to the post, but not quite yet.
They forgot Buffalo, where Briere and Drury are co-captains.
So there we have it.
16 Captains are N. American vs 10 from Overseas
13 Captains are Canadian [with one in the making]
Sakic, Smith, Iginla, Niedermayer, Doan, Marleau, Mellanby, Drake, Aucoin, Brind’Amour, Foote, Taylor, Briere, [Crosby].
3 Captains are American
Modano, Clark, Drury
6 Captains are Swedish
Sundin, Alfredsson, Naslund, Norstrom, Forsberg, Lidstrom/Zetterberg
2 Captains are Finnish
Koivu, Jokinen
1 Captain is Czech
Jagr
1 Captain is Russian
Yashin
Captains in-waiting
Crosby [CAN], Bergeron [CAN], Kariya [CAN]
If I had to guess from what country the next Cup winning team’s captain is from, I’d say either Canada (where we have dominated in the past) or else Sweden (who have some of the longest-serving captains and excellent players coming off an Olympic Gold), Naslund and the Canucks aside.
My vote is for a Canadian again.