This past week, defenceman Roman Josi was named the Nashville Predators’ seventh captain in franchise history.
The 27-year-old joins a list that includes Mike Fisher, Shea Weber, and Jason Arnott, to name a few. Nashville also announced the team’s alternate captains for the 2017-18 season will be defencemen Ryan Ellis and Mathias Ekholm, along with forwards Ryan Johansen and Filip Forsberg.
The surprisingly low number got us thinking about where some of the other captains are from around the league, so we took a look at every team and broke down the numbers. Keep in mind that five teams- The Toronto Maples Leafs, Las Vegas Golden Knights, Carolina Hurricanes Arizona Coyotes and Buffalo Sabres- are all captain-less.
Atlantic
Boston Bruins- Zdeno Chara- Slovakian
Buffalo Sabres- NA
Detroit - Henrik Zetterberg- Swedish
Florida Panthers- Derek McKenzie- Canadian
Montreal Canadians- Max Pacioretty- American
Ottawa Senators- Erik Karlsson- Swedish
Tampa Bay Lightning- Steven Stamkos- Canadian
Toronto Maple Leafs- NA
Metropolitan
Carolina Hurricanes- NA
Columbus Blue Jackets- Nick Foligno- American
New Jersey Devils- Andy Greene- American
New York Rangers- Ryan McDonagh- American
New York Islanders- John Tavares- Canadian
Philadelphia Flyers- Claude Giroux- Canadian
Pittsburgh Penguins- Sidney Crosby- Canadian
Washington Capitals- Alexander Ovechkin- Russian
Central
Chicago Blackhawks- Jonathan Toews- Canadian
Colorado Avalanche- Gabriel Landeskog- Swedish
Dallas Stars- Jamie Benn- Canadian
Minnesota Wild- Mikko Koivu- Finnish
Nashville Predators- Roman Josi- Swiss
St. Louis Blues0 Alex Petrienagelo- Canadian
Winnipeg Jets- Blake Wheeler- American
Pacific
Anaheim Ducks- Ryan Getzlaf- Canadian
Arizona Coyotes- NA
Calgary Flames- Mark Giordano- Canadian
Edmonton Oilers- Connor McDavid- Canadian
Las Vegas Golden Knights- NA
Los Angeles Kings- Anze Kopitar- Slovenian
San Jose Sharks- Joe Pavelski- American
Vancouver Canucks- Henrik Sedin- Swedish
Below is a pie chart representing the findings.
It’s hard to believe that of all the skilled Russian players around the NHL, Ovechkin is the only captain from the country. Canada easily leads the way with 38.46% of the total, followed by the Americans at 23.07.
John Russell/NHLI via Getty Images
With the NHL regular season just around the corner, it will be interesting to see if any of the remaining five teams choose to anoint a member of their organization with the title. Are you at all surprised with the totals?
