Have the Rangers found their future captain?

A future captain?

It’s been a helluva week for Brendan Lemieux.  He played a key role in the win over the Washington Capitals with several grade A chances (he missed) and three hits.  He also took it upon himself to fight one of the toughest players in the NHL in Tom Wilson.  He came out of it with a black eye, but with the Rangers’ pride intact.

In the disaster in Ottawa he took a high stick late in the game when it was out of hand. He lost teeth and was bloodied, but was back on the ice minutes later.

Against Montreal, he earned the Broadway Hat with an outstanding performance .  In the city where his father won a Stanley Cup in 1986 with Claude watching, Lemieux scored two goals on eight shot attempts in 25 hard fought shifts.  He served as a regular penalty killer and scored the game-tying shorthanded goal.

It would be hyperbole to call it a “Messier-like” performance, but if there is one thing that he learned from his father, Lemieux knows the value of hard work and leadership and he exhibited it last night.  He knows what it took for his father to win the Stanley Cup four times with three different teams.   Bear in mind that Brendan was not even born when his father won his first two cups and was all of four years old when he won his last.  Brendan didn’t live through those championship runs, he learned about them from his father.

So, could Brendan Lemieux be a future New York Rangers captain? He checks off an awful lot of the requirements.  Work ethic? Check.  Leadership? Check.  Physical play? Check. Respect from his teammates?  Check. Talent?  Sort of a check. Toughness? Check.  Does he like playing in New York?  Check.

Some would argue that as a 23-year second year player he is too young. Connor McDavid became captain of the Oilers at age 19.  Aleksander Barkov and Bo Horvat are teams captains at age 24.  With a team as young as the Rangers, Brendan Lemieux is older than seven of his teammates. In this case age doesn’t matter

Why it can’t happen

It’s easy for observers to speculate on what is best for a team.  While Brendan Lemieux can check off a lot of the characteristics of a captain in our eyes, what goes on behind the closed doors of a locker room is something none of us know.

It’s up to the coaches to determine who the right candidate is to provide that leadership and if they feel that Lemieux is not the right fit, it is not going to happen.  While he played spectacularly last night, he also was the culprit when the Rangers took their too many me on the ice penalty, jumping into play when he shouldn’t have.

Perhaps putting the “A” on his uniform a few times could serve as a test to see how he responds.  His father served as an Alternate Captain for the Coyotes and the Avalanche so it runs in the family.

What could be an even bigger hurdle for Lemieux is his future with the team.  As a restricted free agent last summer, he signed a qualifying offer of $950k.   That deal expires next summer and he will be an RFA again, but this time with arbitration rights.  If he keeps playing this way, he may price himself out of the Rangers’ budget.  Then again, if the team wants to lock him in, there is nothing to stop them from signing him before he hits the RFA marketplace.

The good news is the coach likes him.  After the game when asked about his play, Quinn said ” I’d like to give him another black eye for that too many men on the ice, but he played too well so I won’t do that.  Listen, I’ve talked about him a lot, I love him as a player, he’s a great kid, he works hard, he’s everything you want in a hockey player and I’m happy for him that he got rewarded statistically.”

If that wasn’t enough of a rousing endorsement, listen to what Quinn said about what it takes to be a winner:

“There’s a lot of things that goes into winning.  Talent obviously, would be one of them, but you better have resolve, you better have mental toughness, you better have conditioning, you better have leadership, you better fight through adversity.  And we showed all of that tonight.”

All of those characteristics sound an awful lot like Brendan Lemieux.   Let’s see what happens.