The announcement that Roberto Luongo would be the Captain of the Vancouver Canucks for 2008-09 got me thinking about the current slate of NHL captains. In recent days several teams have announced their new captains (view list of teams/captains here), although three of the NHL's favorites in the Tavares Cup - Atlanta, Florida and Toronto - have yet to annoint a captain for the coming season. The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the unusual position of having an ambivalent captain who seems unable to decide where or even if he will play this season. The "C" has yet to be stripped from Mats Sundin, despite his failure to commit to the Leafs (or anyone else) for the coming season.
Just like most PeeWee hockey teams, the captain is usually the best player on the team (Crosby, Ovechkin, Iginla, Luongo...), or at least someone who was at one time the best player on the team (Koivu, Arnott, Brind 'Amour?). Patrick Marleau was also the best player on the Sharks when he was named captain, but lost that status when Joe Thorton cam to San Jose. But the case can be made that a handful of teams have stitched the "C" on someone other than their best player. On this I would include:
Washington Capitals - Chris Clark
Buffalo Sabres - Craig Rivet
New Jersey Devils - Jamie Langenbrunner
Philadelphia Flyers - Mike Richards (likely will be the best, but not quite yet)
Edmonton Oilers - Ethan Morrow
Los Angeles Kings - Dustin Brown
Carolina Hurricanes - Rod Brind'Amour
Nashville Predators - Jason Arnott
Here's a snapshot of the league's current collection of Captains.
Nationality: 17 Canadians, 5 Americans, 2 Swedes, 2 Slovaks, 1 Finn
Age: The league's youngest captain is Jonathan Toews (20), the oldest is Joe Sakic (39). The average age is 31.
Position: 10 captains play centre, 7 play right wing, 4 play left wing and 5 play defence and 1 is a goalie
Drafted: It helps to be a high draft pick if you want to become an NHL captain. Three current captains were drafted first overall (Crosby, Lecavalier, Nash) 10 more were drafted in the top 10 and another 7 were first rounders. The lowest draft pick to make it as a captain is Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson, selected 133rd overall. Is Alfie the lowest drafted player to ever captain a team?
Games/Points: Joe Sakic leads all captains in games played (1,363) and points (1,629), a long way ahead of Toews (64 games, 54 points).
To see a simple spreadsheet of the league's captains and some related data, click here.
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