Montreal Canadiens: Way Too Early Predictions for Habs Offseason

Habs name Nick Suzuki as captain.

One big question the Canadiens need to answer this offseason is who will be the team’s captain?

With Shea Weber’s career over, and him being traded a couple slides ago, the Habs need someone else to take over the key leadership role. There are plenty of potential suitors for the role, but there is no point in kicking this can down the road.

Many would say that Joel Edmundson is a great choice and he would be. H is a veteran on the blue line, plays the right way by killing penalties, blocking shots, taking on a tough defensive assignment every night and just consistently battling and moving pucks out of his own zone.

Brendan Gallagher is a terrific candidate as well. He fits almost the exact same description as Edmundson above, but he does it all while being about 5’8″ and not 6’5″ like Edmundson. It is hard for a teammate to watch Gallagher battle like a giant every shift and not get involved physically in the game.

But the right player for the role is Nick Suzuki. He plays the game the right way at both ends of the ice and is becoming the face of the franchise as their first line centre. He constantly gets praise from teammates for his maturity and leadership qualities.

He does the little things that leaders do like grabbing the puck from the referee after the game that was Samuel Montembeault’s first career shutout. Or heading to the net to get the puck after Justin Barron recorded his first career point.

With the Canadiens about to embark on quite a youth movement over the next couple seasons, a young leader is required and that player is Nick Suzuki. The only possible argument to not name him captain is to say he’s not ready yet. But his teammates believe he is wise beyond his 22 years.

But that would just be putting off an obvious decision for a couple years. This team needs to be rebuilt around its young players and its young leader is Nick Suzuki. The Canadiens should name him their team captain this offseason.

Want your voice heard? Join the A Winning Habit team!

Write for us!