NHL: The best captain in each team’s history (Updated 2023)

Best NHL captain from each franchise: Detroit Red Wings – Steve Yzerman

It wasn’t all that long ago when the Detroit Red Wings were considered to be one of the worst teams in all of professional hockey. It wasn’t until a young player by the name of center Steve Yzerman that was drafted back in the 1983 NHL Draft by the Red Wings did a revolution start to begin.

Three years later, Yzerman was officially named captain and the rest is that of legend. He was a human scoring machine and helped put the Red Wings on the map by making them a lot of fun to watch week in, week out. Yzerman was putting up at least 100+ points per season from 1987 until that magical year of 1996. It was this year that Yzerman delivered the first of two incredible playoff runs that ended with back-to-back Stanley Cup championships.

In 1997’s championship run for making it two straight Stanley Cups, Yzerman scored six goals, 18 assists, and had a career-high 24 points during the playoffs which, at the time, was unheard of. Not only did Yzerman solidify himself as one of the greatest captains of all-time but was given the ultimate honor in 2007 by the franchise he helped make famous.

When the Red Wings retired his legendary jersey No. 19, they added the letter “C” to the corner of his banner as he’ll forever be referred to as “The Captain” for the tremendous impact he’s had on the franchise. Talk about an awesome gesture for an incredible player!