All the NHL Teams without a Captain entering the 2022-23 Season
More than a few teams across the NHL do not have captains for the upcoming season.
The NHL has 32 NHL teams; of those 32 teams, 26 have team captains, meaning there are six NHL franchises without a captain on their roster. Every team has a leader in the room, but for whatever reason, some have not named a team captain just yet.
Maybe it is because their captain left in the past few seasons, or maybe just because the team doesn’t want to name a captain, either way, no one is wearing the C on those six teams. Many of these teams are in drastically different positions regarding the state of their franchise, and today I want to highlight those teams.
Anaheim Ducks
The Anaheim Ducks lost their captain this past season when longtime captain Ryan Getzlaf announced his retirement near the end of the 2021-22 NHL season. I cannot imagine this team names a new captain this season partly out of respect to Getzlaf.
This is a team that will play this year with three assistant captains. They have plenty of time to see who emerges as the next leader in the locker room and on the ice. It will be fun to watch while the Ducks also try to contend in 2022-23.
Arizona Coyotes
Of the captain vacancies across the NHL, this is one of the longest ones to date. The Arizona Coyotes have not had a captain since the 2020-21 NHL season. Their captain at the time was Oliver Ekman-Larsson who was traded to the Vancouver Canucks at the end of the season.
The Coyotes do not seem in a rush to name the franchise’s fifth captain anytime soon. Although I will admit, I would like to see Nick Schmaltz or Clayton Keller named captain, if they were to name someone.
Buffalo Sabres
Does anyone remember when the Buffalo Sabres lost their captain? Oh, that’s right, that small news story from this past season when Jack Eichel demanded a trade after the team wouldn’t allow the surgery he wanted.
Technically, he lost the captaincy a bit before that when the team stripped it from him. Either way, the moral of the story is the C still has some baggage in Buffalo. I guess the Sabres won’t name a new captain this upcoming season. When they do name one though I bet it will be Alex Tuch who was traded to Buffalo in the deal that sent Eichel to Vegas.
Calgary Flames
Fun fact: two teams with captain vacancies have had the same player serve as their last captain. For the Calgary Flames that would be Mark Giordano who was with the Calgary Flames from 2005 through 2021.
Giordano was the Flames’ captain from 2013-2021, taking over for Jarome Iginla when he left the team in 2013. The Flames have a lot of great candidates to replace Giordano as captain, although two of their best options left this past offseason in Tkachuk and Gaudreau
Philadelphia Flyers
The Flyers lost their captain this past season when they traded Claude Giroux to the Florida Panthers. Giroux was going to chase a Stanley Cup, something he has not gotten yet in his career.
The Flyers are another example of a team that rarely doesn’t have a team captain, and I could see them going out of their way to name one at some point this season.
Seattle Kraken
The Kraken said goodbye to longtime captain Mark Giordano this past season. Since the departure of Giordano, the Kraken have not had a captain for this first time in franchise history…. the joke here is that they are a year old.
I was a bit shocked when the Kraken named Giordano captain at the start of last season. I somewhat expected them to wait a few years before naming a captain, similar to the Vegas Golden Knights.
With the Kraken not having a captain once again, I think it would make sense for the team to wait a while before naming a new captain. They have some young stars like Matthew Beniers and Shane Wright, who will both be stars in this league in a few years. Maybe they can wait for them to lead the franchise before naming another captain.