Coach David Quinn chooses not to name a New York Rangers captain

On the eve of the first game of the 2021 season for the New York Rangers the team will again not name a team captain

On the final day of the New York Rangers training camp, Coach David Quinn circled up his players to announce who will be wearing letters on their jerseys this season. However, instead of naming a solidified captain, Coach Quinn opted to name four assistant captains.

Initial thoughts

There’s yet to be an official statement from Coach Quinn or anyone from the Ranger’s front office, so the reasoning as to why is merely speculation at this point, but this is a puzzling conundrum for a variety of reasons.

To recap, the Rangers haven’t had a captain since they traded Ryan McDonagh to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Though time is relative thanks to 2020, that trade took place on February 26, 2018, nearly three years ago! Since the trade, the Rangers have rebuilt and reshaped their identity and now find themselves as a far more unified, professional team under new front office leadership.

President of the New York Rangers, John Davidson, and General Manager Jeff Gorton have righted the Glen Sather ship that was perpetually taking on water. The Sather led team was Sisyphean in nature: The Rangers barely make the playoffs. They lose in the playoffs. They trade away their draft assets for veterans past their prime. They barely make the playoffs. They lose the playoffs… Rinse and Repeat.

However, this is a new era. Under Coach Quinn’s tutelage, this is the deepest the team’s been perhaps in franchise history. The NHL Network just declared that the New York Rangers have the top prospect pipeline in the entire NHL!

Combine that with the veteran presence that the Rangers held onto and the team seems destined to be more than competitive for years to come! However, the team still seems to be missing something: a clear-cut leader; their Jonathan Toews; their Sidney Crosby; their new Mark Messier. The team needs a captain.

Kreider or Zibanejad for captain

There was a tremendous amount of debate during the off-season on who the Rangers were going to name captain going into this season. All in all, it was believed by most fans that the decision would come down between two players: Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. Both players are leaders in their own way and both players will, once again, have the letter “A” in the top left corner of their jersey.

So, as a fan and hockey critic, you have to ask “Why haven’t they named either player captain, yet?” Have Kreider and Zibanejad not had ample opportunity to prove their leadership; to solidify themselves as a core piece for the club’s future? Why didn’t they name either player captain?

If they were going to name Kreider captain, in my personal opinion, I feel that they would have definitely done so by now. Despite a sound argument in opposition, the Rangers proved they were committed to Chris Kreider when they offered him his questionable contract extension back in February. No player had more trade value at the pre-pandemic trade deadline than Kreider, but the Ranger’s front office opted to pay Kreider for his veteran presence instead of trading the power forward.

Had the team known they would end up with Alexis Lafrenière, it’s more than likely that Kreider wouldn’t be with the organization today. However, at the time, they paid Kreider to lead. So why wasn’t he made captain?

Zibanejad is a more interesting situation. Zibanejad was absent for the majority of training camp and he revealed recently that it was due to testing positive for COVID-19. Healthwise, Zibanejad seems to be in solid shape. His cardio seems to be in question, but that could just be from him missing out on training camp rather than respiratory side effects. He’ll be dressed for tomorrow’s game and is slotted between his old linemates, Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich.

It could be speculated that if Zibanejad were present for the majority of training camp that Quinn could have appointed him captain. It may be something as simple as that. Or there could be a more business reason that has nothing to do with Zibanejad’s leadership qualifications. For that, we need to look at the aforementioned Kreider contract.

In an article written by Blue Line Station’s Steve Paulus that was published just yesterday, Steve touches on the captaincy conversation:

"Zibanejad was asked if he had aspirations to be named captain. He said no adding that he spent “the last couple of weeks just focusing on getting back and getting through all of this and I’m just happy to be here again.”In all honesty, as much as he may deserve the captaincy, his contractual status would probably rule him out unless he signs an extension.  He has two more years on his contract and will be looking for that extension at the end of this season."

Steve touches on a very real possibility. There is a legitimate chance that Zibanejad doesn’t re-sign with the Rangers. For those of you vocally scoffing at the thought of this, take a hard look at the Ranger’s cap situation.

You’ll see that Zibanejad, Adam Fox, Kaapo Kakko, Tony DeAngelo, Brendan Lemieux, and Alexander Georgiev will all become some form of a free agent in the same off-season. Igor Shesterkin, Buchnevich, Ryan Lindgren, Filip Chytil, Julien Gauthier, and Brett Howden will all be restricted free agents after this season.

To make things more difficult, Artemi Panarin, Jacob Trouba, and Kreider will all still be under contract and currently make up 32% of the Ranger’s total cap space. If Zibanejad continues to build on his most recent performance, he could request a long-term contract in the $10+ million range. This contract mind you, will begin when he turns 29 years old.

That Kreider contract is looking worse and worse by the day…

Seasonal side-effects

At this point is it doing more harm than good? How much damage could this carry over into the regular season? Yes, other franchises have done what the Rangers are doing currently, but it definitely makes things a bit more awkward. Teams are only able to designate three captains, of any kind, each game. Therefore, the four alternates will need to rotate night by night. In addition, they’ll have to designate one player each and every night to be the sole representative to talk with the referees. It’s messy.

Instead of going through this potential debate between Kreider and Zibanejad. Is there a world where you give the captaincy to either Panarin or Trouba? Both are signed to the team through the 2025-26 season. Panarin is the team’s most productive forward and Trouba is the supposed to be the same on defense. Is that a possibility?

One more possibility is that they know who they want to be the captain, but they’re not quite ready yet. It could be that the Rangers feel there is a younger Ranger that would be better suited for the role, but needs a bit more time with the team first.

What do you think? How do you feel about Coach Quinn’s decision?

Comment below.