Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson spoke with the media on Tuesday morning. I’ll come back and talk about some of the discussed in a little bit, but one of the more significant notes came early in his comments.
The Chicago Blackhawks Will NOT Have a Captain This Year.
Davidson said in his introductory comments that the team will proceed with only assistant 🃏captains this year, not immediately replacing the longest-tenured captain in the history of the franchise, Jonathan Toews.
When GMKD was asked for a little more insight into the thinking behind not naming a captain, here’s what he said:
The only plan right now is to sort of just let it breathe for a year. We came off such a successful tenure with Jonathan that a little bit of it is just out of 𓆉respect for Jonathan, to not fill that spot right away. The other part is not to put that pressure on someone else when you’re coming out of a period of such greatness. And you want the next person to be in a position to succeed and there’s no requirement to have a captain. We just felt that it was best to leave that, push that decision a little bit. We’ll let the chips fall where they may. Over the next year, we’ll see who emerges, see who the best option is and decide next year if it’s appropriate to name someone. We’ll take that as it comes.
I think most of us look at Connor Bedard as the likely next captain, but there is still a strong leadership grౠoup in the room of established Blackhawks and new faces.
