Former Red Wings and current Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland spoke with ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski for a story for ESPN+ regarding the evolution of the captaincy in the NHL:
A general manager since 1997, Holland didn’t have to make too many tough calls on the captaincy. He inherited Yzerman with the Detroit Red Wings, who was then succeeded by Nicklas Lidstrom.
“That took about two minutes to decide,” said Holland with a laugh.
The only close race for the captaincy was when Lidstrom retired and the “C” was going to go to either Pavel Datsyuk or Henrik Zetterberg. The captain would be Zetterberg, but he and Datsyuk would be co-leaders.
When Zetterberg retired, Holland opted not to give anyone on the Red Wings the captaincy. Yzerman arrived as GM and waited two years to give the “C” to Dylan Larkin.
“We were clearly in a rebuilding cycle,” Holland said. “You look at the team, and you see where you’re at. Are we in a rebuild mode? Are we in a down cycle? Is there a great young player we’re going to put the ‘C’ on or are we going to wait a few years? Then you have to factor in whether he’s ready for it, or if we’re putting too much pressure on him.”
What Holland has seen in the past two decades are captains relieving that pressure by sharing the responsibilities with teammates.
“The captain is the captain. But there’s also now a leadership group with the captain. There had been leadership groups before, but it would always defer to the captain. Now it would be a group of four or five players meeting with the head coach, instead of one player,” Holland said.
Continued (paywall)
