Hobnobs
Pinko
- Nov 29, 2011
- 8,912
- 2,272
i think it can be a way to signal to the room that the lazy or toxic vets don’t own the room
trevor linden would be one example. sure you could have given a solid 30 year old guy like doug lidster the c for another tear or two after smyl leaves. good guy, future coach, won’t be a problem. but there’s a reason pat quinn traded dan quinn away. there’s a reason why he turned over the entire roster over four years. that’s why the kiddo became captain. as much a message to all the other young guys that this is your team, you lead, do not learn from the dead weight just because they have experience. not all experience is good experience.
there’s a famous story of the great bill russell telling young kenny smith that he wasn’t allowed to sot in the back of the bus with the vets on the sacramento kings because they don’t mind losing. so he had to spend his rookie season sitting next to russell.
i assume it was the same for yzerman coming onto the dead wings.
the opposite is the canucks resisting making bo horvat captain after henrik sedin retired. jim benning and co are doubling down and saying we live and die with our toxic lazy vet core of eriksson, sutter, gudbranson before he was traded, etc.
Sounds plausible as well. When the Red Wings gave it to Yzerman I think they just wanted to give it to their future franchise centerman. By that time they had already overhauled most of the roster and iirc there were only three players over thirty with Lewis joining the team that season. And the top-6 was 23 or younger for a majority of that season (Yzerman, Gallant, Burr, Probert, Klima, Oates + 27 year old Ogrodnick who was traded by xmas). Defensemen who played most of the season was Norwood, Veitch, O'Connell, Snepsts, Lewis and rookie Chiasson. None of them are really captain material.
Last edited: