Ranking The NHL’s Captains
By Tim Bayer
Welcome to the club, kid. (Photo: Ed Mulholland/US PRESSWIRE)
When the Colorado Avalanche named 19-year-old Gabriel Landeskog the youngest permanent captain in NHL history last Tuesday, he joined a select and prestigious group. Brian Bellows, Vincent Lecavalier and Sidney Crosby are the only other players who became captains before their 20th birthdays. Bellows was actually younger than Landeskog when he was awarded the captaincy with Minnesota in 1983-84, but that was on an interim basis filling in for the injured Craig Hartsburg. Lecavalier was stripped of his captaincy by Tampa Bay Lightning coach John Tortorella after only one season. Crosby, who’s widely regarded as the best player in the game, was 11 days older than Landeskog when he was named captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins. What I’m trying to say is…
No pressure, kid.
There’s no position revered more on an NHL team than the captain. A captain must represent his team with class, leadership, toughness and superb play on the ice. A good captain is highly respected by not only his teammates, who are willing to skate through a wall for him, but his opponents as well. As fans, we spend hours arguing that our team’s captain is better than your team’s captain.
Well, now you know if that’s really the case.
I took on the less-than-enviable task of compiling a ranking of all 26 captains in the NHL (Columbus, Detroit, Florida and New Jersey do not have captains on their rosters as of today). I used three criteria (playing ability, longevity and track record) to rank the captains, then added the three rankings together to come up with a final score.
Playing ability – Definitely the most subjective of the three criteria, I used stats as much as possible to figure out which players contributed to their team’s on-ice success, but there are many other factors that can’t be quantified on a stat sheet. For example, Zdeno Chara and Shea Weber are widely regarded as two of the best defencemen in the NHL, but you wouldn’t necessarily tell by statistics. Jonathan Toews and David Backes might not put up huge offensive numbers either, but they contribute in other ways to help their teams win. I tried my best to be as objective as possible, but I am a Leafs fan, so feel free to hammer me for putting Dion Phaneuf way too high on this list.
Longevity – AHA! SOMETHING COMPLETELY QUANTIFIABLE! STAT NERDS REJOICE! The more seasons you have spent with the team you are captaining, the higher you rank on the list. The tiebreaker is how many seasons you have spent as captain of that team. So Crosby and Alex Ovechkin both came into the league at the same time, but Crosby was named captain of the Penguins earlier than Ovechkin was of the Capitals, so Crosby ranks higher than Ovie. Pretty simple.
Track record – For this one I combined regular season games played with points for team and player awards. You get five points for a Stanley Cup, three for an Olympic gold medal, two for any of the major player awards (Hart, Art Ross, Rocket Richard, Lester B. Pearson/Ted Lindsay, Conn Smythe or Norris) and one for a King Clancy or Calder Trophy. Add that score to regular season games played divided by 100, and (PRESTO!) you have a final track record score. An example:
Jarome Iginla – 1188 GP/100 + 3×2 gold medals + 2×1 Art Ross + 2×2 Rocket Richard + 2×1 Lester B + 1×1 King Clancy = 26.88
It’s an imperfect system, but I did my best to rank awards by order of importance. The way I see it, the Stanley Cup and Olympic gold medal are the two biggest things a professional hockey player can win, with the Cup obviously being number one. Player awards also tell a lot about personal accomplishments, but aren’t as important as a Cup or gold medal.
These are the final rankings:
Playing Ability |
Longevity
Track Record
Final Score
1
Sidney Crosby
, C, Pittsburgh Penguins
1
11
1
13
2
Jarome Iginla
, RW, Calgary Flames
9
3
2
14
3
, C, Vancouver Canucks
3
7
8
18
4
Alex Ovechkin
, LW, Washington Capitals
2
13
5
20
5
, RW, Ottawa Senators
11
1
9
21
, C, Tampa Bay Lightning
13
4
4
21
7
, C, Carolina Hurricanes
7
9
10
26
8
, D, Boston Bruins
4
17
7
28
9
, C, San Jose Sharks
8
16
6
30
10
, RW, Phoenix Coyotes
19
2
13
34
11
, C, Chicago Blackhawks
5
20
11
36
, D, Nashville Predators
6
14
16
36
13
, C, Anaheim Ducks
10
15
12
37
14
, D, Philadelphia Flyers
12
24
3
39
15
, LW, Dallas Stars
23
5
14
42
16
, RW, Los Angeles Kings
21
8
15
44
17
, RW, Buffalo Sabres
18
10
20
48
, C, Minnesota Wild
15
12
21
48
19
, C, Edmonton Oilers
26
6
17
49
20
, C, St. Louis
14
18
23
55
21
Dion Phaneuf
, D, Toronto Maple Leafs
16
22
19
57
22
, D, New York Islanders
17
21
24
62
23
, LW, New York Rangers
20
19
25
64
24
, RW, Montreal Canadiens
25
23
18
66
25
, LW, Winnipeg Jets
23
25
22
70
26
Gabriel Landeskog
, RW, Colorado Avalanche
24
26
26
76
Unsurprisingly, Crosby finds himself at the top of the list. Iginla may be past his prime, but he still scored 32 goals last year, has won multiple awards and has been a vital part of the Flames for years. Henrik Sedin might not immediately come to mind when you think of great captains, but no one can argue that he leads by example with his point production. Ovechkin’s scoring may have declined over the past two seasons, but his ability and track record speak for themselves. Daniel Alfredsson is still going strong, even as he gets ready for his 17th season with the Senators, and Lecavalier has matured immensely since his rocky early days with the Lightning.
As for our boy Landeskog, he’s got some work to do. But after a full 82-game season that netted 22 goals, 52 points and a Calder Trophy as rookie of year, he’s off to a good start.
Again, no one’s saying these are the definitive rankings on NHL captains. They’re simply my rankings, and if you think I’m out to lunch, I’d love to see your rankings. And if all else fails, at least it gives us something to talk about as we gear up for the lockout to begin in five days.