- Ten NHL teams open 2026-27 without a captain after a chaotic offseason
- Daily Faceoff pegs Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini as easy calls to wear the C
- Read below for every projected captain, from Pastrnak in Boston to nobody in Vancouver
Ten NHL teams will open next season without a captain.
That is what a chaotic offseason of trades, retirements, and free agency does to a league full of leadership groups. Daily Faceoff’s Hunter Crowther went team by team on who takes over the C, and a couple of the picks are as easy as it gets.
Connor Bedard headlines the list in Chicago. The Blackhawks shipped Nick Foligno to Minnesota at last year’s deadline, and Foligno basically handed the job over on his way out.
“It’s a no-brainer in all our eyes for how he’s led us and what he does on a nightly and daily basis,” Foligno said the day before the trade. Bedard set career highs with 30 goals and 75 points and is the piece Chicago builds around.
Check out the season that has the Blackhawks ready to hand him the C:
Macklin Celebrini is the other lock. He finished fourth in the NHL with 115 points at 20 years old, a franchise record and 56 clear of any other Shark. Crowther called him the easiest choice on the board.
Watch the historic season that made him San Jose’s centerpiece:
The rest of the board splits between stars and steady veterans. David Pastrnak gets the nod in Boston after a fourth straight 100-point year. Bo Horvat, a former Canucks captain, is the call on Long Island. Jake Sanderson lands it in Ottawa now that Brady Tkachuk forced his way to Florida.
Charlie Coyle in Columbus, Adrian Kempe in Los Angeles, Jackson LaCombe in Anaheim, and Philip Broberg in St. Louis round out the projections as the veterans holding their rooms together.
Vancouver is the lone holdout. With a new GM, a new coach, and no clear franchise face after the Quinn Hughes trade, Crowther figures the Canucks leave the C on the shelf for a year.
