Crazy Captains.

With the start of the 08-09 NHL season, there are only 8 non-Canadian to wear the 'C' for his team, but how important is that stat? Is it absolutely vital to have your leader be born of red & white blood or is it purely coincidence? The first European captain was named during the 93-94 season (any guesses? I would have never known) and has seen it peak during the 2006-2007 season with 14 captains. I thought it would be interesting to examine the effects of having a non-Canadian captain...


The 8 non-Canadian captains this year are Chara (Boston), Lidstrom (Detroit), Koivu (Montreal), Langenbrunner (NJD), Guerin (NYI), Drury (NYR), Alfredsson (Ottawa) and Clark (Washington). Their teams combined record is 57 - 30 - 14, a 56.5 Win% and 7 playoff teams (OTT & WSH tie for 8th, NYI only non-playoff team). Those numbers seem pretty impressive, even with the struggling Islanders holding back the rest.


The 18 Canadian led squads (ATL, FLA, TOR all have a vacated captain, while MIN uses a captain-by-month theory. None of the 4 teams are used in these stats) have a combined record of 113 - 90 - 27, a 49.1 Win% and 10 playoff teams (EDM & NSH tie for 8th). I actually didn't think they would have a below .500 win% and by the shear number of teams, I assumed they would have more playoff teams.





Head-to-Head, a non-Canadian captain has played in 4 Stanley Cup Finals since the 93-94 season and is 2-2 against Canadian captains (winners are in bold)...
98-99 Hatcher (DAL) vs. Peca (BUF)
99-00 Hatcher (DAL) vs. Stevens (NJD)
06-07 Alfredsson (OTT) vs. Niedermayer (ANA)
07-08 Lidstrom (DET) vs. Crosby (PIT)



At the height of Euro/USA captaincy success, look further then 2 seasons ago when 14 teams were led by non-Canadians: BOS, DET, FLA, LA, MON, NSH, NJD, NYI, NYR, OTT, PHI, TOR, VAN, WSH and 13 by Canadians: ANA, ATL, CAL, CAR, CHI, COL, CLB, DAL, EDM, PHO, SJ, STL and TB. MIN had rotating captains, PIT was vacant due to Lemieux retirement and BUF had Briere & Drury as Co-Captains. So, why the step back? Why did the number of captains decrease rather then increase? It seems that these players were deemed expendable assets or weren't in the future plans of the franchise. How can your captain NOT be in your team's future plans? Seems like a paradox to me.

Whatever the reason may be, it seems like a Euro/USA player can only become a captain if they are an elite scorer. Or a well established veteran. Or just on a team with no better option. It seems somewhat ironic that the crop of players viewed with the least leadership skills are putting up better numbers then the Canadians. And the stats don't lie...

Cheers.
-Smith

p.s. Alex Mogilny in 93-94 after Pat LaFontaine went down to injury.