Ever since the departure of Jonathan Toews the Chicago Blackhawks have been captainless. That changed on Wednesday when Nick Foligno was named as the 35th captain in franchise history.
General manager Kyle Davidson attributed the decision to Foligno’s mentorship of younger players and “commanding presence in the locker room”.
Foligno is an incredibly deserving and wise choice to wear the “C”. At the same time, it’s slightly surprising that Chicago’s young superstar Connor Bedard was not chosen.
Other teams in Chicago’s situation, rebuilding teams with a generational young superstar on their roster, have given that young superstar the captaincy in recent memory.
The NHL has a lot of great young captains but Connor Bedard is not one of them yet
There are quite a few examples over the past 15 years just by looking at our list of the three youngest captains in NHL history. Sidney Crosby was named captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins after his first two NHL seasons in May 2007.
Gabriel Landeskog was named captain of the Colorado Avalanche just before his second NHL season and was the reigning Calder Trophy winner.
Connor McDavid was named captain of the Edmonton Oilers before his second NHL season, just like Landeskog. Just like Bedard, two of those three were first-overall draft picks (Landeskog was chosen second overall in the 2011 NHL draft)
One notable exception to this trend is Auston Matthews with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto had no captain in the Matthews first two seasons before giving the “C” to free agent acquisition John Tavares.
Tavares stepped down as captain and the honor was given to Matthews this past offseason as Matthews enters his ninth NHL campaign.
Matthews signed a four-year contract extension last offseason. Meanwhile, Tavares is entering the last year of his contract and his place on the Maple Leafs has been the subject of speculation the past few seasons.
So why did the Blackhawks pass over Bedard? Perhaps Chicago didn’t feel as if he was mature enough. Being more mature than their age was common praise for both Crosby and McDavid entering the league and most likely aided in the decision to make them captains at a young age.
Davidson’s comments about Foligno being a “commanding presence” don’t necessarily paint Bedard as immature, but at least suggest the older Foligno has him beat in the maturity department.
Bedard also lost a good part of his rookie season with a broken jaw missing out on 14 games of NHL experience.
Having a shortened rookie season didn’t stop the Oilers from naming McDavid captain, however. McDavid only played in 45 games his rookie season after sustaining a fractured left clavicle 13 games in. Just like Bedard, McDavid would return later in the season.
By no means are we saying Foligno isn’t a good choice. He might have been the best, and safest, choice for the Blackhawks to make. What we are saying is that it bucks a trend we’ve seen among young superstars in the league.
Let’s look at this year’s number one overall pick Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks. Logan Couture remains the Sharks captain and still has three years remaining on his current contract. Unless he’s moved, it’s unlikely we’ll have this same conversation about Celebrini next year.