Speculation: Quinn Hughes to be named Captain

[Bgav]

Thoughts?

I always thought it would be Petey, however, I have no problems with Quinn being named Captain.

Hopefully, this helps convince him to stay once his contract expires.

Per Rick Dhaliwal and Elliotte Friedman

 

[MS]

Like I said in the other thread, this is literally the dumbest thing they could do and is repeating the Horvat mistake, and he'll get absolutely scapegoated by the casuals for his physical play/quiet demeanor/body language.

How hard is it to just let young players keep developing and improving without needlessly throwing this albatross around their neck?

 

[Goatlender]

Like I said in the other thread, this is literally the dumbest thing they could do and is repeating the Horvat mistake, and he'll get absolutely scapegoated by the casuals for his physical play/quiet demeanor/body language.

How hard is it to just let young players keep developing and improving without needlessly throwing this albatross around their neck?

I think this is hyperbolic. Naslund was all those things and, aside from playoff choker criticism, seemed to do alright.

 

[MS]

I think this is hyperbolic. Naslund was all those things and, aside from playoff choker criticism, seemed to do alright.

Naslund was absolutely eaten alive by the captaincy, especially in the wake of the 2003 'choke' and looked like he hated playing hockey his last few years.

Captaincies literally don't matter. Lots of teams have done great without captains. Teams have won Cups without captains. It's mostly a PR thing for casual fans to latch on to. Just name a senior leadership group who wear the As and avoid putting unnecessary pressure on any one player.

 

[Goatlender]

Naslund was absolutely eaten alive by the captaincy, especially in the wake of the 2003 'choke' and looked like he hated playing hockey his last few years.

Captaincies literally don't matter. Lots of teams have done great without captains. Teams have won Cups without captains. It's mostly a PR thing for casual fans to latch on to. Just name a senior leadership group who wear the As and avoid putting unnecessary pressure on any one player.

I think the Moore hit had more to do with his decline than fan scrutiny. Henrik Sedin is another example.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

I don't think there's any rush to do it this year, but if they decide to name someone, I have no objections to Hughes.

 

[Vector]

Almost one third of the league doesn't have a captain: Ducks, Coyotes, Bruins, Flames, Blackhawks, Flyers, Kraken, Blues, Canucks, and Jets.

Longest serving captains are Crosby, Ovechkin, and Landeskog with a 5 year gap between Crosby and Landeskog.

There has been a trend towards young captains (Brady Tkachuk, Nico Hirschier, and Nick Suzuki). Anders Lee and Barkov were both very young when named captains in 18-19.

Specifically, Hughes always looks like he's about to cry and I find that funny. I don't think it'll go well if the team sputters though.

 

[MS]

I think the Moore hit had more to do with his decline than fan scrutiny. Henrik Sedin is another example.

Like I said in the other thread, Henrik is the only guy in the last 30 years where it's ended well. And that's because he was a Hart winner and an absolute saint of a human being made out of teflon.

The Bertuzzi thing made things worse but he was already struggling with things in that 2003 'choke'. He wasn't a good captain or a natural leader and would have been far better just wearing an A.

It just doesn't matter and I have no idea why you'd needlessly put it on a 23 y/o who should be continuing to focus on improving as a player.

 

[TruGr1t]

Pettersson probably doesn't want it and you sure as Hell don't give it to Miller given his antics, so they don't have much of a choice. Guess they could wait.

 

[credulous]

hughes is a terrible public speaker and already a guy "casuals" don't appreciate as much as they should. from a purely external perspective (ie, ignoring how great a leader he may be in the room or on the ice) hughes as captain is going to be a disaster imo

 

[MS]

Almost one third of the league doesn't have a captain: Ducks, Coyotes, Bruins, Flames, Blackhawks, Flyers, Kraken, Blues, Canucks, and Jets.

Yeah, the league is moving more and more away from this for the reasons I've been mentioning.

If you have a Crosby or McDavid who nobody will ever question as captain because he's so absurdly good, sure. But otherwise you're just creating unnecessary drama.

 

[EpochLink]

I don’t mind it, Hughes is super chill.

Also, we will get to see Hughes ride his scooter in downtown again this season.

 

[MS]

hughes is a terrible public speaker and already a guy "casuals" don't appreciate as much as they should. from a purely external perspective (ie, ignoring how great a leader he may be in the room or on the ice) hughes as captain is going to be a disaster imo

Yeah, I'm not questioning whether Hughes could do a good job in a vacuum internally. I don't know? But maybe he carries a lot of weight in the room.

But he's a sad-looking mumbly Joe who had 0 hits in his first 20 games last year and as soon as anything goes wrong he's going to get destroyed by the Dumb Sports Guy crowd for being a midget Lady Byng no-hit captain. You can guarantee it's going to be a lightning-rod talking point and probably a disaster.

 

[StreetHawk]

Like I said in the other thread, this is literally the dumbest thing they could do and is repeating the Horvat mistake, and he'll get absolutely scapegoated by the casuals for his physical play/quiet demeanor/body language.

How hard is it to just let young players keep developing and improving without needlessly throwing this albatross around their neck?

I would agree. Canadian markets are very silly to put that much weight onto the C. See who emerges vs slap that onto someone.

NFL captains it’s QB for the offence and typically the MLB for Defence because of the nature of their positions. MLB in the middle of rhe play so can communicate changes to everyone.

 

[Breakers]

I don’t mind it, Hughes is super chill.

Also, we will get to see Hughes ride his scooter in downtown again this season.

Bud was dropping his car off at Cap Audi
had an RSQ8 already prepped for one of the "famous canucks" but wouldn't say who.

guessing Hughes, and he got it for free to use during the season.

 

[MS]

I would agree. Canadian markets are very silly to put that much weight onto the C. See who emerges vs slap that onto someone.

NFL captains it’s QB for the offence and typically the MLB for Defence because of the nature of their positions. MLB in the middle of rhe play so can communicate changes to everyone.

Yeah. I'm not saying 'absolutely never have a captain'. If someone emerges where it's like, 'yeah, this guy is HIM' then sure. And maybe Pettersson or Hughes is that guy a couple years from now.

But just like Horvat, this feels like a forced 'WE NEED TO HAVE A CAPTAIN' and rushing to just give it to someone so the marketing department and casuals can latch onto that guy,

And I hate, hate, hate it so much. You already have the players talking about all of the extra pressure of the Canadian fishbowl and we're like 'Hey, let's just go and double that for a key young player!' So dumb.

 

[Raistlin]

waiting 1 year is not so unthinkable is it? let the leader emerge naturally instead of slapping it onto Hughes.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Death, taxes and MS critiquing captains.

For me, captains are hit or miss.

I liked Henrik and Linden as captains. Both guys led on the ice and you could tell the dressing room looked up to those guys for leadership.

Horvat, meh. I think the franchise should have been without a captain for that time period.

Naslund was a questionable choice. It looked good on some nights when he put the team on his back but really looked awful when things went south and during the latter years where he epitomized a broken man.

Putting the C on Luongo flat out sucked.

I don't think Hughes is a good choice due to the unnecessary pressures this may create. Stupid fans think the captain should be engaging in physical battles and "standing up" for teammates. I can see the casuals crying about Hughes being "soft."

 

[Ernie]

Yeah. I'm not saying 'absolutely never have a captain'. If someone emerges where it's like, 'yeah, this guy is HIM' then sure. And maybe Pettersson or Hughes is that guy a couple years from now.

But just like Horvat, this feels like a forced 'WE NEED TO HAVE A CAPTAIN' and rushing to just give it to someone so the marketing department and casuals can latch onto that guy,

And I hate, hate, hate it so much. You already have the players talking about all of the extra pressure of the Canadian fishbowl and we're like 'Hey, let's just go and double that for a key young player!' So dumb.

Even a legendary captain like Yzerman faced a lot of criticism early in his captaincy. If they want to slap the title on a veteran for a short period I'm all for it, but never put it on a young player.

 

[m9]

I am fine with the team having captains, it's the process in the NHL that bothers me. Though if they were eliminated I wouldn't care either.

They should just have the players vote before every season and that's how the captain for the season is chosen. It's far more interesting as a media story, anyway.. plus you can't really argue with the results.

 

[MS]

Death, taxes and MS critiquing captains.

For me, captains are hit or miss.

I liked Henrik and Linden as captains. Both guys led on the ice and you could tell the dressing room looked up to those guys for leadership.

Horvat, meh. I think the franchise should have been without a captain for that time period.

Naslund was a questionable choice. It looked good on some nights when he put the team on his back but really looked awful when things went south and during the latter years where he epitomized a broken man.

Putting the C on Luongo flat out sucked.

I don't think Hughes is a good choice due to the unnecessary pressures this may create. Stupid fans think the captain should be engaging in physical battles and "standing up" for teammates. I can see the casuals crying about Hughes being "soft."

And the thing about Henrik was that he was named captain in 2010 when he was 30 years old and coming off of his MVP season. It wasn't forcing a captain. It was a guy who had the right mentality, was at the right stage of his career, and who carried the credibility and track record to be a good choice respected by the media and fanbase. It was a guy who stepped up and was the obvious choice. And that's how it should be if you're naming a captain. Not this 'we gotta find someone' stuff and just slapping it on an unready young player.

Like, can you imagine how differently things go if Henrik was named captain when he was 23?

 

[Nucky]

Almost one third of the league doesn't have a captain: Ducks, Coyotes, Bruins, Flames, Blackhawks, Flyers, Kraken, Blues, Canucks, and Jets.

Longest serving captains are Crosby, Ovechkin, and Landeskog with a 5 year gap between Crosby and Landeskog.

There has been a trend towards young captains (Brady Tkachuk, Nico Hirschier, and Nick Suzuki). Anders Lee and Barkov were both very young when named captains in 18-19.

Specifically, Hughes always looks like he's about to cry and I find that funny. I don't think it'll go well if the team sputters though.

lmao I noticed this pretty early on during his rookie season, glad I'm not the only one who thinks its funny.

Dan Hamhuis also gave me those vibes. He always looked like he just came back from watching a really sad movie.


As for Hughes as captain, I think it's fine. He seems to actually want it, unlike Pettersson. I don't think Pettersson wants to be a captain and I'm very glad it's not being forced onto him.

Captain thing is overblown anyway, it's more about the leadership group as a whole which I think this team is still lacking.

 

[LemonSauceD]

I think it’ll be interesting. He turns 24 next month.

I still prefer Miller to be captain.

 

[Nucky]

If Willander pans out, he's probably the one guy who gives off natural leader vibes

 

[bossram]

I'm fine with Hughes, in a vacuum, I just don't get why it's necessary to name a Captain at all, let alone right now.