Today, the Red Wings cleared up the captaincy situation that was muddied when Henrik Zetterberg said he could no longer play professional hockey.
Dylan Larkin will wear an “A” at home, and Frans Nielsen will wear it on the road.
4 A’s
kronwall abdelkader nielsen (road) larkin (home).
Z. still the C, to me.#RedWings
— gregg krupa (@greggkrupa) October 3, 2018
This seems like a good solution to the “letter vacancy.” Barring some unforeseen changes, the captaincy will eventually pass to Dylan Larkin. It seemed highly unlikely that the team would name Larkin the captain this season, with Zetterberg’s departure still so fresh in everyone’s mind.
With this likely being Kronwall’s last year, the team can either stick with the remaining three A’s or give Larkin the C sometime in the next few seasons.
Obviously, with Zetterberg still being under contract for this season and the next two, the optics of giving the C to another player could be something the team wants to avoid.
My guess is that either next season or the season after, Zetterberg will participate in a passing of the torch ceremony to show that Larkin has his blessing as the new captain. Let’s just hope it goes better than when George Bluth tried to pass the torch to his wife Lucille.
