{"id":653338,"date":"2026-09-01T07:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T07:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/653338\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T07:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T07:30:19","slug":"sturm-says-bruins-next-captain-doesnt-need-to-be-like-bergeron-chara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/653338\/","title":{"rendered":"Sturm Says Bruins\u2019 Next Captain Doesn\u2019t Need to Be Like Bergeron, Chara"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Boston Bruins<\/a> have not had to look far for great leadership throughout their history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Franchise legends like Ray Bourque<\/a>, Zdeno Chara<\/a>, and Patrice Bergeron<\/a> are among the many notable names to wear the \u2018C\u2019 in Boston, but the precedent was set long before them.<\/p>\n

Speaking with New England Hockey Journal\u2019s Evan Marinofsky on Bruins Beat, head coach Marco Sturm<\/a> thinks that history may create an unrealistic expectation for the next man up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the problems and issues we have here in Boston is that we had a guy like Bergeron, that we had a guy like Chara, or even Ray Bourque, you name it. We had such good, high-quality captains here,\u201d Sturm said to Marinofsky<\/a>. \u201cSo everyone thinks automatically, \u2018oh, we need a guy like him,\u2019 but that\u2019s different. Those guys are gone. Over the course, we talked about the young guys. It\u2019s a new generation; they\u2019re different now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sturm then looked to David Pastrnak<\/a>, one of the front-runners to become the 28th captain in franchise history, and compared his leadership style to one of the greatest goal scorers in the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at our guys now, I think David, he\u2019s a totally different leader as a Bergeron or Chara. Totally different. Which is absolutely fine,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cI played with a guy like [Alex] Ovechkin<\/a>. He\u2019s like that. He\u2019s totally different. [That] doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s a bad leader; he just does things different. So we always got to remember that, it\u2019s a different time right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlie McAvoy<\/a> is the other front-runner, alongside Pastrnak, but Cam Neely<\/a> said \u201cI don\u2019t know if you\u2019d necessarily need to have a guy unless there is that one guy that really stands out\u201d on the Jimmy Fund Telethon two weeks ago.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hampus Lindholm<\/a> wears the third \u2018A,\u2019 with Elias Lindholm<\/a> and Nikita Zadorov<\/a> also part of the leadership group. Marco Sturm has praised Jeremy Swayman\u2019s leadership in the past<\/a>, meaning the group extends well beyond the three who wear letters on their sweater.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The leadership group helped push the Bruins back to the postseason in Marco Sturm\u2019s first year, and the head coach said he liked<\/a> how the group operated without a captain. He reiterated that while talking to Marinofsky, but also outlined the responsibilities for whoever is next up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe we have good leaders in our locker room. For me, personally, as a coach, he needs a strong voice in the room, obviously, but also who helps me out,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cHe should be the connection between coaches and also for the players in a lot of different areas of the game; on ice, off ice, you name it. Also, who can stay very calm during stressful moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe Sweens set the tone after that bad season they had. They challenged, a little bit, that leadership group. I do believe they worked on it last summer, and they came back as a unit already, so that was nice to see, and then they took off. I\u2019m actually very proud of these guys, how they handled all season long, and also always have to answer those questions about the captaincy. They kept everything under control all year long.\u201d<\/p>\n

On breakup day, Charlie McAvoy looked back on his conversations with Don Sweeney<\/a> after the 2024-25 season. McAvoy talked about reestablishing the culture, growing with Pastrnak as a leader, and getting more players involved in the leadership group. Those were boxes that McAvoy said, looking back, he can check. Pastrnak also called it a \u201cfull group effort\u201d with \u201cyounger age and the middle age stepping up as leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bruins have been without a captain since March 7, 2025, when Brad Marchand<\/a> was dealt to Florida. It\u2019s the sixth time the Bruins have gone without a captain in their 100-plus-year history, and the longest since 1967-73.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will probably sit down here shortly,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cEnd of the day, I would like, at one point, I don\u2019t know when, I like to have a captain. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to happen now or later, whatever it is, but it\u2019s definitely something; as a coach, you always rely on a guy like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check out the full interview here:\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

FOLLOW @JACKSTUDLEY13 ON \ud835\udd4f<\/a>\u00a0 | FOLLOW @BOSHockeyNow ON \ud835\udd4f<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boston Bruins have not had to look far for great leadership throughout their history.\u00a0 Franchise legends like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[95,2154,2178,593,5,20,5172,6164,4,5151,3046,66,31,5171,4079],"class_list":["post-653338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-boston-bruins","tag-charlie-mcavoy","tag-david-pastrnak","tag-don-sweeney","tag-hockey","tag-maple-leafs","tag-mapleleafs","tag-marco-sturm","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-offseason","tag-patrice-bergeron","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-torontomapleleafs","tag-zdeno-chara"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117194615905742846","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}