Winnipeg Jets will play 2022-23 season without a team captain

The Winnipeg Jets are restructuring the team’s leadership group and will play the 2022-23 season without a dedicated team captain, the team announced Friday.

“It is the determination of the coaching staff that we will enter the 2022-23 season without a captain, but rather a group of assistants still to be determined,” the press release stated.

Winnipeg said its goal is to expand the leadership base within the team and provide more leadership opportunities for its players.

Winnipeg’s head coach stepped down in the middle of last season. Its new coaching staff, led by Rick Bowness, made the determination that Blake Wheeler’s captaincy should come to an end. The Jets will go forward with a group of assistants yet to be announced. This is a franchise in turmoil doing its best to change course.

Instead of a captain, the Jets will announce a group of alternates at a later date. Forward Blake Wheeler has been team captain since the 2016-17 season.

The best case scenario is that this change means Winnipeg’s younger voices — the players like Nikolaj Ehlers and Kyle Connor whose play drives results — get a chance to take over the team. Pierre-Luc Dubois would be in that mix with any amount of contract certainty but his long term future remains in question.

The most obvious candidate to step into the leadership group isn’t a superstar, though. It’s Adam Lowry, who has a tremendous reputation for treating every person in the Jets organization from ownership to equipment managers and security guards with the utmost respect. He has a long term contract, is getting progressively more involved in the community (see his involvement with the Toba Centre which began this summer) and has earned the respect of his teammates.

What all of this means is that the foundation of this team is still shifting. At 36 years old, Wheeler is on a bit of a generational island and while he is still a capable second line scorer who produces on the power play, he is not such an elite player that his frequent delivery of “we’re a young team” while struggling holds an incredible amount of weight anymore. The Jets clearly feel that it’s best to hand the reins to a younger group more in line with the team’s core.

Even if it works out well in the long run, this could be a tough transition for the now former captain, known for his on- and off-ice intensity. Winnipeg may have been better off trading him this summer, offering a clean break for everyone involved — how do you change leadership without changing personnel? — but we’ll wait and see how the new playing field works out for the group.

This story will be updated.

(Photo: James Carey Lauder / USA Today)