Three Possible Captaincy Options if New York Rangers Trade Jacob Trouba

Artemi Panarin

When in doubt, put the weight of the captaincy on your organization's best-eligible player. Artemi Panarin is undeniably the Rangers' best player. A 120-point season, the most by any Ranger not named Jaromir Jagr, and a campaign for the Hart Trophy as league MVP puts him up there with the best of the best for wingers in the NHL. Dynamic, speedy, and near impossible to shut down at his peak, the Russian winger is a dynamo.

Panarin is a different option. He's been around the league with Chicago and Columbus, but he chose to come to New York and leave more money on the table to play here. He has had Stanley Cup-winning experience since he was a young kid in Chicago. He knows what it takes to reach the levels of glory that the Rangers have been aspiring to achieve since the end of 1994. He would be quite the leader of Blueshirts.

He's also the best "lead by example" player in the NHL. Imagine going into game six of the Eastern Conference Finals and needing two wins to progress, and your captain carries the load to get you to the Stanley Cup Finals, where you win the Cup for the first time in a long time. Mark Messier did it, and Panarin is qualified to do it himself.

Is it likely that the New York Rangers change their captain? No. If they move Trouba, I doubt they'd appoint a new one, and they will not strip Trouba. But it is a fun conversation to have. There's almost no chance it actually happens.