Who are the most surprising players to never be Captain of an NHL team?

[Oddbob]

Paul Coffey, Mark Recchi, Pavel Datsyuk. Larry Robinson. Mike Bossy

To be fair to the number of hall of fame Montreal players that were never captain, during the 60s, 70s they have Beliveau, Henri Richard, Yvan Cournoyer and Bob Gainey whom are all also HoF players.

Datsyuk had no chance with Yzerman, Lidstrom and Zetterberg all being Captain during his career. Coffey had no chance at all, he played 85% of his career with either Gretzky or Lemieux as his captain.

 

[beowulf]

Mark Recchi??

He wore an A in Phily, Boston, Pittsburgh and Montreal but never a C. Unless he wore it while the C at was out, I don't think he was ever officially captain of a team he was on.

 

[DFC]

Was Adam Oates ever a captain? First name that jumped to my mind. (Edit: Google says he captained the Caps for a minute.)

What about Jeremy Roenick?

 

[CoffeyMcMan]

Datsyuk had no chance with Yzerman, Lidstrom and Zetterberg all being Captain during his career. Coffey had no chance at all, he played 85% of his career with either Gretzky or Lemieux as his captain.

Plus another 230 games with Yzerman as his captain. Yeah, Coffey never had a chance (although he captained Pittsburgh for a short period in 90/91 - I think, but that was only due to Mario missing games injured, he was never the official captain, as well as Team Canada at the world championships in 1990)

 

[FrozenJagrt]

Gary Roberts was never captain, was he?

 

[GJB]

Gary Roberts was never captain, was he?

 

[Sheppy]

Pretty sure Bergeron has worn the "C" whenever Chara was injured and couldn't play (which hasn't been very often).

But yeah, if there wasn't a HOF Defenseman currently holding the "C" with the Bruins who's been with the team almost as long a Bergeron, he totally would have been named full-time Captain by now.

I actually don't think Bergeron has ever worn a "C" in Boston, I could be wrong though.

 

[FrozenJagrt]

So what's the story here? I could have sworn Primeau, Dineen and Francis were captains during Roberts' years there. Am I getting my time lines mixed up?

 

[Pucklington]

This guy!

 

[Weztex]

Doesn't have to be the best players, just guys that you identify with certain teams and immediately think "they must have been captain". Some examples:

Frank Mahovlich
Bobby Orr
Guy Lafleur
Bryan Trottier
Patrice Bergeron

I don't think Lafleur was ever considered captain material. He sure was a leader on the ice but I remember reading he had some clashes with Bowman early in his career. The guy was insanely talented and not one to follow a game plan. He always struck me as a bold and opinionated guy who relied more on talent than on work ethic. He also had the reputation to be a party guy off the ice (he nearly killed himself driving allegedly hammered in 1980). There's a reason he never even got an 'A' in Montreal.