Gabriel Landeskog And The Captaincy

Gabriel Landeskog was appointed the youngest captain in the NHL’s history, but with inconsistent team effort and trade rumors flying recently should he keep the “C”?

I have complained about a lot of things this year on the site: I whined about the poor defense from all positions early in the year, I mused over the possible need of a culture change, and recently I angrily pointed to the fact the Avs only show up to play in about 3/4ths of their games.

I have also contemplated various trade scenarios, sometimes specifically to address the defense, but at times just to shake things up.

But one thing I have never brought up, or even really considered is taking the captaincy away from Gabriel Landeskog. And to be honest I’m a little shocked I never thought of it until recent comments by “Mark T” and “Shaker” when discussing the Av’s lackadaisical play. I mean I went through trading away superstars such as Tyson Barrie and Matt Duchene, I even had discussed the possibility of replacing Patrick Roy as coach at times.

But the possibility of Landeskog not being the captain just didn’t occur to me due to various reasons. First of all he’s been the captain for 3 and a half seasons now — it just seems to be a given that he is/will be the captain. At the same time replacing a captain is an even more radical move, in my perspective, than firing the coach. It’s the move of a team committed to rebuilding something, and I have argued viciously the Avalanche should not be doing that.

Yet I have spent the last several days thinking about it, and I see merit to both sides of the argument. And we’ll go over both sides of the argument, but I think the most important thing to remember is that just because Gabriel Landeskog may not actively deserve to be the captain does not mean he should necessarily be stripped of the “C”.

Next: What Makes A Great Captain