Detroit Red Wings’ Todd McLellan talks Legos, alternate captains
Detroit Red Wings coach Todd McLellan, Oct. 7, 2025 in Detroit.
After half a dozen seasons of rotating alternate captains, the Detroit Red Wings are back in form.
“We’ll be an Original Six team,” coach Todd McLellan said on Tuesday, Oct. 7. “We’ll have a captain and a couple of assistants, and that’s where we’ll be.”
While assistants is commonly used in hockey parlance, the correct term is alternates, and they will be: Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond.
Dylan Larkin has been captain since being named by Steve Yzerman in January 2021.
The Wings have rotated through alternates the last few years, and McLellan didn’t make any changes when he took over as coach last December. But now in his first full season, it was time to restore order.
“When I got here last year, I knew Larkin was the captain, but we had six, seven rotating A’s,” McLellan said. “I didn’t even know who wore them on any given night.
“We’re Original Six. All my years here (as an assistant coach), and it was a clear definition of who was going to go.”
After previous captain Henrik Zetterberg retired in 2018, the Wings went a year without a captain, with plans to name Larkin to the role ahead of 2019-20. Then Yzerman came in, and he wanted to get to know the players better before making an announcement. That led to a period where the Wings used three A’s, rotating among players including Luke Glendening, Justin Abdelkader and Frans Nielsen. In recent season, the rotation has included Ben Chiarot, Andrew Copp and Patrick Kane.
McLellan made it clear leadership is expected from the whole team, not just the letter-wearers.
“Those younger players are still evolving in that role, and they’ve got a lot of help around them,” McLellan said. “I expect our younger letter wearers to lean on them. They all have good experience. And the ones that were wearing them, I don’t expect them to change one bit.  So I think we’re in a good spot.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter.Â