There aren’t many higher honors on a professional sports team than being the captain of a team. This article will be all about them, a rundown of current and past captains, where they come from, and interesting facts along the way.
All Active Captains
Of the 32 teams in the NHL, 30 teams have a player who wears a ‘C’. Only the Boston Bruins and the San Jose Sharks are without a captain at the moment. Last season, every team in the league had a captain going into the campaign.
The Bruins had Brad Marchand rock the ‘C’ for the team, but he was traded to the Florida Panthers at the 2025 trade deadline. Defenseman Charlie McAvoy and right winger David Pastrnak are likely next in line for that role.
As for the Sharks, Logan Couture was their guy, but he stepped away from the game due to Osteitis Pubis. There is the possibility that the Sharks will wait for Couture’s contract to expire before they name someone else captain.
Anaheim Ducks: Radko Gudas
Boston Bruins: Vacant
Buffalo Sabres: Rasmus Dahlin
Calgary Flames: Mikael Backlund
Carolina Hurricanes: Jordan Staal
Chicago Blackhawks: Nick Foligno
Colorado Avalanche: Gabriel Landeskog
Columbus Blue Jackets: Boone Jenner
Dallas Stars: Jamie Benn
Detroit Red Wings: Dylan Larkin
Edmonton Oilers: Connor McDavid
Florida Panthers: Aleksander Barkov
Los Angeles Kings: Anze Kopitar
Minnesota Wild: Jared Spurgeon
Montreal Canadiens: Nick Suzuki
Nashville Predators: Roman Josi
New Jersey Devils: Nico Hischier
New York Islanders: Anders Lee
New York Rangers: J.T. Miller
Ottawa Senators: Brady Tkachuk
Philadelphia Flyers: Sean Couturier
Pittsburgh Penguins: Sidney Crosby
San Jose Sharks: Vacant
Seattle Kraken: Jordan Eberle
St. Louis Blues: Brayden Schenn
Tampa Bay Lightning: Victor Hedman
Toronto Maple Leafs: Auston Matthews
Utah Mammoth: Clayton Keller
Vancouver Canucks: Quinn Hughes
Vegas Golden Knights: Mark Stone
Washington Capitals: Alex Ovechkin
Winnipeg Jets: Adam Lowry
Longest Tenured Captains Of All-Time
Steve Yzerman holds the record for the longest-tenured captain in NHL history, as he donned the ‘C’ for the Red Wings for 19 seasons, from the 1986-87 season until 2005-06 when he retired.
Sidney Crosby will be equalling that record going into his 19th season as the captain of the Penguins. His first season as Pittsburgh’s captain was in 2007-08, his third season in the NHL.
The third-longest tenure in NHL captains' history is from Joe Sakic. He captained the Quebec Nordiques and Colorado Avalanche from 1990-91 until 2008-09.
Alexander Ovechkin deserves some love as he’ll join the top three once the 2025-26 regular season kicks off. This will be his 17th season as captain of the Capitals.
Longest Tenured Captains Currently
Aside from Crosby and Ovechkin, who are shaking hands with history in terms of being some of the longest-tenured captains in NHL history, here’s that list among active players.
Behind Crosby and Ovechkin is Avalanche left winger Gabriel Landerskog. Landeskog was named Colorado’s captain ahead of the 2012-13 campaign when he was 19 years old. After a remarkable comeback to the NHL, the Avs captain is suiting up to be the team’s captain for a 14th season.
Next in line is Jamie Benn of the Stars. He was named captain one season after Landeskog got the ‘C’. Benn was a 24-year-old heading into his fifth NHL campaign. Benn is yet to win a Stanley Cup, but has come close with a Cup final appearance and three consecutive Western Conference finals. This will be Benn’s 13th year donning the ‘C’.
The 2025-26 season will be Anze Kopitar’s last; thus, it will be his final year as the Kings captain. Kopitar became Los Angeles’ captain later in his career compared to others. This is because Dustin Brown held the captaincy before him for eight seasons. This will be Kopitar’s 20th NHL season and 10th year as Kings captain.
Shortest Tenured Captains
J.T. Miller of the Rangers is currently the shortest-tenured captain, as he was just given the captaincy on Sept. 16 and hasn’t started the regular season yet. Miller has never been captain before, but ahead of his departure from the Canucks, he was an alternate for his last four seasons.
As Rangers Name Ex-Canuck J.T. Miller Captain, A Lot Can Change In A YearAt this time last year, veteran J.T. Miller was a Vancouver Canucks center about to build on an excellent 2023-24 campaign.
Aside from Miller, seven players are tied, entering their second season as captains. Those players are Auston Matthews, Nick Foligno, Victor Hedman, Radko Gudas, Rasmus Dahlin, Clayton Keller and Jordan Eberle.
Keller and Eberle would be the newest captains by technicality because Keller was named captain of Utah on Oct. 4, 2024, and Eberle was gifted the ‘C’ with Seattle a couple of days later. Everyone else officially became the captain earlier than October’s arrival.
Fun fact: Wayne Gretzky has one of the shortest tenures as a captain in NHL history. In the 1995-96 season, he played 18 games as a member of the Blues after being traded by the Kings. After those 18 games, he signed with the Rangers the next season and never wore the ‘C’ again.
Youngest Captains
The answer to who the youngest-named captain of all time and among active players is the same. On Oct. 5, 2016, the Oilers named 19-year-old Connor McDavid captain of the team. He dethroned Landeskog of that title, as McDavid was 20 days younger than Landeskog when he was given the captaincy.
Gabriel Landeskog OK losing his place in history | NHL.comAvalanche forward no longer youngest captain after Oilers name Connor McDavidThe current youngest captain in the NHL is Rasmus Dahlin of the Sabres. Buffalo’s defenseman is 25 years old, like Quinn Hughes is, but Hughes was born in 1999 versus Dahlin’s 2000 birth year. Dahlin was named captain ahead of last season.
Oldest Captains
The oldest captain in the NHL as the 2025-26 season approaches is Ovechkin. He just turned 40 years old on Sep. 17, and this will be his 21st season in the NHL.
The oldest player to ever wear the ‘C’ on his chest was defenseman Zdeno Chara. The final year of his captaincy was in 2019-20, when he was 43 years old. He still went on to play two more seasons, split between the Capitals and Islanders.
Who Should Be The Boston Bruins' Next Captain?The Boston Bruins haven’t gone one full season without a captain since 2001-02. The 2025-26 season may change that after they traded Brad Marchand at the 2025 NHL trade deadline.
Captains By Country
1. 12 Canadian captains (Jordan Staal, Boone Jenner, Jamie Benn, Connor McDavid, Jared Spurgeon, Nick Suzuki, Sean Couturier, Sidney Crosby, Jordan Eberle, Brayden Schenn, Mark Stone, Adam Lowry)
2. Eight American captains (Nick Foiligno, Dylan Larkin, Anders Lee, J.T. Miller, Brady Tkachuk, Auston Matthews, Clayton Keller, Quinn Hughes)
3. Four Swedish captains (Rasmus Dahlin, Mikael Backlund, Gabriel Landeskog, Victor Hedman)
4. Two Swiss captains (Nico Hischier, Roman Josi)
T 5. One Finnish captain (Aleksander Barkov), one Czech captain (Radko Gudas), one Russian captain (Alexander Ovechkin), one Slovenian captain (Anze Kopitar)
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