Canadiens: Who Should Be Next Captain Of Habs?

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The Montreal Canadiens made a big trade last week when they sent Shea Weber to the Vegas Golden Knights for Evgeni Dadonov. Well, they traded the contract of Shea Weber to the Vegas Golden Knights for Evgeni Dadonov.

While this trade will allow the Habs to escape the wretches of long term injured reserve more easily in the future, it does make their 2022-23 salary cap a little trickier to manage. They can’t just stash Weber away on LTIR and actually have to fit a healthy Dadonov and his $5 million cap hit into their budget.

It is just for one year, and the Canadiens aren’t looking like contenders heading into 2022-23 anyway, so they should be able to figure out their salary structure with another trade.

The bigger question this trade opened for debate was, who will be the team’s next captain? Weber has served as the captain for the past few years, and no one replaced him last season even though he was out for the entire year.

With him officially off the books and out of the organization now, there is no question it is time to replace him. General Manager Kent Hughes admitted as much after the trade, commenting to the media that a new captain will be in place in time for the 2022-23 season.

Who will that be? The way I see it, there are only three possible candidates that make any sense. Who are they? And who is most likely to be honoured as the team’s newest captain?

Joel Edmundson

Joel Edmundson has proven to be a valuable shutdown defender in his short time with the Canadiens. He has played two seasons in Montreal, and quickly earned a prominent role on the team’s top four. He mostly played with Jeff Petry in 2020-21 and they could eat a pile of minutes together.

Edmundson missed most of last season with injuries but helped settle the team down defensively a bit when he did return. He has played over 400 NHL games, plus 75 playoff games and won a Stanley Cup with the St Louis Blues in 2019. He is a big, physical, veteran defender who was trusted to wear an A on his sweater at times last season.

Who better to lead a team that has a plethora of big, young defenders on the horizon like Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble? Edmundson would be a perfect role model for those defenders as they become pros next season and learn the ropes of the NHL game.

The only problem with Edmundson being named captain is he has just two years left on his contract. He has a very reasonable cap hit of $3.5 million and could be on his way out of town as early as the 2023 trade deadline if the right offer comes along. It doesn’t really make sense to name him captain if the plan is to trade him in a year.

Brendan Gallagher

Brendan Gallagher is less likely to be dealt any time soon. Even if the Canadiens wanted to move on from him, his $6.5 million cap hit for the next five seasons would make that quite difficult to pull off.

Not that the team would be interested in trading him anyway. Gallagher is just 5’8″ tall with the right shoes on, but he plays every shift like he is the biggest player on the ice. He never backs down from a battle in the corner or the front of the net, blocks shots, hits and goes to the front of the net like he’s built like Milan Lucic.

He is the exact example you want young players to learn from. The Canadiens are going to be introducing a first overall pick into the NHL next season and they should want that player to emulate Gallagher’s game. If not his exact game, at least his willingness to bring 100% effort to the ice on every shift no matter the score or the team’s chances of making the postseason.

The only reason to not give the C to Gallagher would be the fear his game continues to decline. Though his hear of a lion demeanour is admirable, it has worn down his body over the years and he recently admitted it affected his game last season.

If that continues to be a problem, the Canadiens could end up with another captain on long term injured reserve for a season before having to deal with the captaincy once again.

Nick Suzuki

While Edmundson and Gallagher are perfect veteran players to keep around during a rebuild, there are a few reasons to not hand them the captaincy of the team. How long will Edmundson stay? How many more years can Gallagher play before he shuts down?

Hard to say, and difficult enough questions to answer that it would makes sense to give the captaincy to someone else if there was an ideal candidate. Hrmmm, who could that be? Maybe a younger player that is sure to be here long term. Someone capable of handling the pressure and attention that comes with captain territory. Ideally someone who plays a huge role on the team.

Obviously the perfect candidate is Nick Suzuki. He is already the team’s first line centre and his eight-year contract extension hasn’t even started yet. He will be just 23 years old when next season begins so he has a lot of years as a Montreal Canadiens player in front of him.

Suzuki doesn’t have the same experience as Gallagher and Edmundson, but he did centre the first line to the Stanley Cup Finals a year ago and continues to improve his two-way game each season.

He has also shown a willingness to get involved in the community and is doing charity work in Montreal in the offseason. He is fully committed to being a member of the organization on and off the ice as well as a community member year round.

If the Canadiens are to go anywhere in the next 5-10 years, it will be because Nick Suzuki is leading the way on the ice. It only makes sense to acknowledge his role within the organization by giving him the captain’s role next season.

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