Captaincy

So Scott and I were talking about the importance of captains in hockey, and we both believe that with the retirement of Steve Yzerman, there may not be a better captain than Hurricanes' own Rod Brind D'Amour.

The Rangers named Jaromir Jagr as captain this year, kind of a 'default-to-the-best-player-on-the-team' captain. Which is not a bad thing sometimes, in particular if the team doesn't have a true leader in the locker room who also has some degree of talent. It's hard for a fourth-line type of player to be captain of a team with a Jagr-like talent.

I have no doubt that before too many years go by, one of the Erics will be the captain of the Hurricanes; both seem to have leadership ability as well as hard-nosed talent.

One thing for sure: The wrong captain can wreak havoc with a club. I gave the example of Brendan Shanahan, who, when he was playing for the Hartford Whalers, announced that he wanted to be traded. While he was captain. It was a season killer, and the Whalers were soon moved to North Carolina.