We’ve almost made it through the dead zone of August. But with a few weeks left in Slow News Summer, I realized we haven’t done a full roster-building exercise. That’s not good, so let’s dive into a topic that’s been in the news lately: captains.
Today’s question: Who wins, a team made up of guys who captained more than one team, or guys who were never captains at all?
Should be simple enough. But first, a few ground rules™:
We’re building 18-man rosters, with 12 forwards and six defensemen. Beyond that, we don’t care about positions.
That’s right, no goalies. Sorry, Roberto Luongo and Bill Durnan fans, but Team Multi-Captains wouldn’t have anyone to choose from, which feels a little unfair.
Active players are allowed, but will only qualify for Team Non-Captains if they’ve been in the league for at least 15 years. Otherwise it would be too easy to load up on younger stars who’ll probably get a C at some point in the near future.
Finally, while you’d think that concepts like “captain” and “not the captain” would be simple enough, we’re actually going to run into some complications. Some teams rotate their captaincies. Others will give a player a temporary C for a few games if the usual captain is injured. We’ve even seen teams let somebody wear it for a game in the preseason, which is just long enough for somebody to grab a photo that will confuse generations of fans in the future. For our purposes, we’re using the Hockey-Reference captaincy history for each team, which includes season-long rotated captaincies but does not count temporary substitutions for injury or other short-term circumstances.
Let’s see where this goes …
The team captains
Team Multi-Captains doesn’t have too tough a call here given that the greatest player of all time was also a multi-time captain, as Wayne Gretzky wore the C for the Oilers, Kings and Blues. Yes, the Blues, even though he was only there for a few weeks; and no, not the Rangers, where Brian Leetch wore the C for most of Gretzky’s time in New York. Still, he’s one of only four players in NHL history to captain three different teams, which makes him an easy pick here. Well, that and the 2,857 career points.
For Team Non-Captains, it’s tempting to leave the position vacant, just to fit the spirit of the thing. But instead, we’ll do something that no NHL team ever did and award the captaincy to Bobby Orr. He never wore the C in Boston because Johnny Bucyk had it, and also didn’t get the honor during his brief stint in Chicago. From time to time, you see a “Who’s the best NHL player to never be a captain?” discussion start up online, and it always lasts right up until some old-timer mentions Orr. Discussion over.
Two players in, and we’ve locked down two faces on the NHL’s Mount Rushmore of all-time greatness.
First line
We’ve already got Gretzky on the multi-team, so we’ll need some serious star power to keep up with him. We can find it, as Jaromir Jagr captained the Penguins and Rangers. And of course there’s Mark Messier, who’s one of the other members of that rare three-time captain club, which is weird since I’m assured he only ever played for the Oilers and Rangers.
For the other side, we’re going to break out what will become a key piece of our non-captain strategy: looking for stars who played for a long time on a team with an established captain. For example, the Islanders dynasty of the 1980s was led by Denis Potvin, which means we have both Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy available. Bossy never played for any other teams, while Trottier’s stint in Pittsburgh coincided with some guy named Mario, so they’re both on our first line. Sure hope they have some chemistry.
For the third spot, we’ll look to a guy who I’ll admit to being surprised never wore a C: Montreal disco scene legend Guy Lafleur. He wasn’t captain during the Habs 1970s dynasty (that was Henri Richard and then Yvan Cournoyer), and Serge Savard and Bob Gainey had the honor in the 1980s. I wondered if Lafleur had a late-career turn with either the Nordiques or Rangers, but no dice, so he completes a first line for Team Non-Captains that will give Team Multi-Captains a tough matchup.
Second line
Given all the star power on those first lines, we’re clearly going to need some two-way players who can take care of their own end on these rosters. So let’s start Team Multi-Captains’ second line off with Dave Keon, who qualifies based on six years in Toronto and one in Hartford. He’ll skate with two modern stars, as Ron Francis (Hartford/Carolina and Pittsburgh) and Joe Thornton (Boston and San Jose) are both eligible. That’s about 3,300 career points of offense on Keon’s wings, if you’re keeping track.
Team Non-Captains isn’t going to be able to match that level of firepower, but they do get off to a great start with a surprise name: Bobby Hull, who scored 610 goals without ever serving as captain in Chicago (or later, Winnipeg or Hartford). We’ll give him two more modern linemates, including the first active player to pass our 15-season threshold in Patrick Kane, another Blackhawks icon who never wore the C. And since we said we don’t need to worry about position up front, we can go with one more winger in Cam Neely, who was a leader in Boston but wasn’t going to get the captaincy with Ray Bourque around.
Third line
There’s a slight theme for Team Multi-Captains on this line, as I break out my homer glasses and go with an all-Leafs group. We’ll start with Doug Gilmour, who was captain in Toronto and then later in Chicago. (Yes, Gilmour was captain of the Hawks, but Patrick Kane and Bobby Hull never were. The league is weird sometimes.) He’ll skate with Lanny McDonald, who wasn’t captain in Toronto but was in Colorado and Calgary, as well as John Tavares, who served in Toronto in addition to being the most beloved captain in Islanders history.
There’s a theme for Team Non-Captains too, and while it’s not quite as noble and righteous as “Maple Leafs,” they should find some chemistry. We’ll start with one of the best two-way players ever in Sergei Fedorov, who never wore a permanent C in Detroit or any of the other teams you have no recollection of him playing for. We’ll give him a fellow magician linemate in Pavel Datsyuk. And we’ll finish the line with one more Russian legend, as Evgeni Malkin easily sails past our 15-year bar for active players.
Fourth line
The picks are getting genuinely thin for Team Multi-Captains, who are tapped out as far as HHOF forwards go. Still, they can have some decent players to choose from, including Mike Peca (Sabres, Islanders), Doug Weight (Oilers, Islanders) and somehow Alexei Yashin (Senators, Islanders). In related news, the Islanders might have a type.
While all of those guys would be decent picks, I’m going to start our fourth line with maybe the most underrated 1,200-point player in NHL history: Vincent Damphousse, who captained the Habs and Sharks. I’ll put another former Habs captain on his wing in Kirk Muller, who also wore the C for the Devils. And the final spot goes to Canucks and (of course) Islanders captain Trevor Linden, if only because he and Messier should have lots to talk about between shifts.
Meanwhile, Team Non-Captain is drowning in depth, so much so that they can leave names like Peter Bondra and Steve Shutt in the press box. Instead, let’s go with roughly 1,800 goals’ worth of HHOF forwards in Mike Gartner, Dino Ciccarelli and Marián Hossa.
With the forwards in place, I think it’s fair to see both squads are strong, with Team Multi-Captains having a bit more star power but Team Non-Captains leading in depth. On to the blue lines …
First pair
We already have Orr on Team Non-Captains, and we’ll pair him with one of his contemporaries in Larry Robinson, yet another Habs star who never wore a permanent C in Montreal (or later Los Angeles).
That’s just about an impossible duo to beat for Team Multi-Captains, but they can at least ice a downright nasty pairing in Chris Chelios (one year in Montreal plus a few in Chicago) and Chris Pronger (St. Louis, Anaheim and Philadelphia).
By the way, in case you’re keeping track, Pronger joins Messier and Gretzky as the third captain in the three-timers club. The fourth and final member: Terry Ruskowski, a journeyman center in the 70s and 80s who only had 113 career goals, but captained the Hawks, Kings and Penguins. Apparently all his motivational speeches were some variation of “We’re terrible now but don’t worry, we’re going to dominate in the 2010s.”
Second pair
One of the key lessons of imaginary roster-building is that chemistry is crucial, so we’re going to build a Team Multi-Captains second pairing that will be familiar to New Jersey fans, as Scott Stevens (Blues, Devils) is joined by Scott Niedermayer (Devils, Ducks).
Team Non-Captains can’t pull off the same-team trick, but they’ll console themselves by building their second pair around the second-leading scorer in the position’s history in Paul Coffey, who was never a full-time captain despite playing for (checks notes) every team in the league. We’ll pair him with another active player who hits our 15-season threshold in Drew Doughty, who’s spent his entire career in L.A. under captains Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar.
Third pair
Unlike the forwards, this time it’s Team Multi-Captains who have more depth to pull from. They tap it to form a very solid third pairing of Shea Weber (Predators, Canadiens) and Rob Blake (Kings and Sharks, despite nobody remembering that San Jose year). Those two Hall of Famers are more than enough to push Norris-winner Mark Giordano into a depth role.
Things are dicier for Team Non-Captains. I guess I could technically use Victor Hedman, who just hits our 15-year limit and has never played a game as the Lightning’s full-time captain, but with that honor seeming like a formality in the near future, it would feel like a cheap move.
So instead, let’s finish things off with two more active players who blow by our 15-year cutoff with ease: Kris Letang and Brent Burns, who combine for 38 years without a C between them.
Who you got?
Here’s what our final rosters look like:
Team Multi-Captains
FORWARDSFORWARDSFORWARDS
Mark Messier
Wayne Gretzky
Jaromir Jagr
Ron Francis
Dave Keon
Joe Thornton
Lanny McDonald
Doug Gilmour
John Tavares
Kirk Muller
Vincent Damphousse
Trevor Linden
DEFENSEDEFENSE
Chris Pronger
Chris Chelios
Scott Stevens
Scott Niedermayer
Shea Weber
Rob Blake
Team Non-Captains
FORWARDSFORWARDSFORWARDS
Mike Bossy
Bryan Trottier
Guy Lafleur
Bobby Hull
Patrick Kane
Cam Neely
Evgeni Malkin
Sergei Fedorov
Pavel Datsyuk
Mike Gartner
Marián Hossa
Dino Ciccarelli
DEFENSEDEFENSE
Bobby Orr
Larry Robinson
Paul Coffey
Drew Doughty
Brent Burns
Kris Letang
Now it’s over to you. Who wins a series between these two teams?
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(Top photos of Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr: Mike Powell / Getty Images and Dick Raphael / USA Today)