Role of NHL captain much more than fans ‘C’

Brad Marchand, Quinn Hughes, Adam Lowry and Brayden Schenn joined a small yet special fraternity this month when each was named captain of his NHL team.

Marchand, 35, was named captain of the Boston Bruins on Wednesday, Hughes, 23, was named the captain of the Vancouver Canucks on Sept. 11, Lowry, 30, was named captain of the Winnipeg Jets the following day, and Schenn, 32, was named captain of the St. Louis Blues on Sept. 19.

“This is a pretty special day,” Schenn said. “Standing up here being the captain of the St. Louis Blues is something I’ll remember forever.”

Although the role is marked by a simple “C” on a player’s jersey, there is nothing simple about the responsibility that comes with being captain.

Captains with several years of experience, and some with fewer years on the job, spoke with NHL.com at the NHL North American Player Media Tour this month about the responsibilities of the role and their tips for the new members of the group.

Jacob Trouba, who is entering his second season as captain of the New York Rangers, said that even though a player’s role with the team changes when he becomes captain, the person cannot.

“The biggest thing is you don’t need to reinvent yourself or try to be someone you are not. Everyone can see through someone who’s not genuine,” Trouba said. “So, if you’re trying to be fake or do things that that aren’t you, that’s not the way to lead, and guys will see right through that. So just being true to myself and being myself.”

Anders Lee, who is entering his sixth season as captain of the New York Islanders, agreed, saying players need to stick with what got them the honor in the first place.

“Be themselves,” Lee said. “Those guys are in those positions now for all the qualities that have gotten them there. So just enjoy it, be themselves and I think they’ll be just fine.”

Schenn seems to have already received that message.

“I don’t think being the captain means you have to change much, you just be who you are,” Schenn told the Blues website. “Just because I’m wearing a ‘C’ doesn’t mean I have to become someone I’m not.”

John Tavares, who preceded Lee as captain of the Islanders from 2013-18 and has been the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs since Oct. 2, 2019, said it’s a job that requires a lot of work, and some help from others.

“I always say, through my experience and that I would give anyone who’s becoming a captain in really any sport, is you don’t have all the answers,” Tavares said. “You’re not the one that has to feel like you have to figure it all out.”

When Tavares was named captain of the Maple Leafs — their first since Dion Phaneuf was traded to the Ottawa Senators on Feb. 9, 2016 — the team also announced that Mitchell Marner, Auston Matthews and Morgan Rielly would be alternate captains, a role Tavares said is key to any captain.

“There’s a lot of great leaders, a lot of great people in your locker room, on your team, and you really need to lean on that to get different perspectives, different opinions,” Tavares said. “You know, there are multiple guys in our locker room that can be a captain, there’s no doubt in my mind. So, it would be stupid of me not to rely on them and have them help me, because I don’t have all the answers and sometimes I need some help, too.

“I don’t want to call it delegating, [rather] relying on other people for their strengths and their views on things and just having a good perspective from different guys and different angles.”

But what exactly is the role of a captain besides being a team’s one-ice leader and its voice postgame? What goes on behind closed doors with no game, no fans, no media around?

“I guess things that people don’t know about the role is there’s a lot of logistics that go along with it, a lot of planning and stuff like that, which I obviously never would have expected,” said Connor McDavid, who has been the Edmonton Oilers’ captain since Oct. 5, 2016, when he was 19. “But day to day, I think you’re always kind of just measuring the temperature in the room. You know, every day you’re coming in and you’re seeing where things are at and seeing if there’s any way you can help or change it. That’s kind of my day to day as a captain, just taking the temperature of the room.”

Tavares said for him, a big part of being captain is making sure all players, at every level, feel they are a big part of the Maple Leafs organization.

“I think it’s really important to always go out of your way to welcome in the new guys,” Tavares said. “And in general, whether it’s this time of the year in training camp with prospects, players that are playing with our minor league team, just always trying to go out of your way to say hi and get to know someone as best you can, and just really make them feel that they’re a part of it as much as myself or obviously other guys on the team that play big roles. Just feeling really well accepted and that they can be themselves.”

Brady Tkachuk, who is entering his third season as captain of the Senators, said he loves being in the position of getting teammates going, even if that means there are no more off days.

“Every day, you kind of need to be on,” Tkachuk said. “There were some days when I was younger, you can kind of hide in the weeds, and if I had a bad sleep or was having a bad day, I can just kind of do my own thing. [But] it’s every day be on, and I feel like that’s why I’m this person, you know? Always energized, always making sure everybody’s OK and happy.”

With Marchand, Hughes, Lowry and Schenn being named captain, there are now six teams in the NHL without one, proof that the role is not just given to anyone. The Chicago Blackhawks announced on Sept. 19 that they won’t replace longtime captain Jonathan Toews this season.

The Bruins needed just a few months to name a successor for Patrice Bergeron, who retired on July 25 after playing all 19 of his NHL seasons in Boston. The Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, Calgary Flames, Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken are the other five teams without one.

Although Bergeron was only captain for his final two seasons with the Bruins, his leadership on and off the ice made a huge impact on his former linemate, Marchand, who now assumes that role.

He got a firsthand look at what it takes.

“You don’t realize how much goes into being a captain,” Marchand said last season. “Not just our captain, but there’s a captain on every team. But there’s only a few that are at that elite level that will go down in the history of sports, and ‘Bergy’ is one of them. The amount of effort and time that he takes into making sure that every single guy every day is in the right head space and feeling good about themselves, he’s always trying to find ways to bring the group closer together and allow us to bond and build chemistry.

“He’s always trying to find a way to improve the team, make sure that nothing is being missed for the group to allow us to have success. You don’t realize it until you see it. He’s talked to me multiple times about different situations. I’m like, ‘Dude, how do you even see this?’ I thought everything was good. He’s like, ‘I think we can improve this or that.’ That’s the type of leadership that doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a gift.”

Of course, when it comes to being captain on the ice, a high-level of performance is also expected.

Bergeron is widely considered the best two-way center in the history of the NHL, and a number of current captains are among their teams’ top scorers, including McDavid, Tavares, Marchand, Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings.

Trouba may not be the Rangers’ top scorer, but he leads in other ways, mostly with his physicality, with one notable example occurring last season. The Rangers had lost four of their previous five games and were trailing the Blackhawks 3-0 at home with 2:47 left in the second period. That’s when Trouba laid a big, clean hit on forward Andreas Athanasiou. The Rangers lost 5-2, but he got his point across.

Following that loss, the Rangers won eight of their next nine.

“I think at that point in the season, we kind of needed something,” Trouba said. “I’m not a guy who is going to go out there and score a goal, but [I’ll] do something to try to make an impact, try to create some energy and some passion. That’s what we needed more of at the time, and it just kind of happened.

“It wasn’t like a pre-staged thing or anything, but it helped our team, if anything it kind of made it like a stopping point. Sometimes you need something like that where an event occurs and it’s different afterwards.”

The Trouba hit and his teammates’ reaction to it are a perfect example of what Tavares calls “always trying to have a pulse on things.”

“I think whether it’s on guys individually, on the group, feeling around the locker room, what’s going on with the day to day, heavy, big picture stuff, communication with management, stuff that we’re planning to do as a team, team building, or socializing together or schedule, workload, all those things,” Tavares said. “You’re kind of the voice of the group, so relaying those messages and just having a pulse on all those different things that affect the team on and off the ice.”

It sounds simple, but it’s a huge responsibility. And the players who take it on wouldn’t want it any other way.

“You’re reminded every time you put the jersey on,” said Dylan Larkin, who is entering his fourth season as captain of the Detroit Red Wings. “You feel it. It changes your perspective on the team and everything, really, about being at the rink.”

NHL.com columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika and staff writer Amalie Benjamin contributed to this report