Zetterberg’s Retirement Is Unlike Red Wings Captains Before Him

The Detroit Red Wings have been very fortunate. In the last 32 years, the team has only cycled through three captains and all three of them happened to be legendary players. When Steve Yzerman retired, Nicklas Lidstrom was there to take over the reins. When Lidstrom called it quits, Henrik Zetterberg was there to carry the torch.

Now that Zetterberg has called it a career, the Red Wings find themselves at a crossroads. When each of their previous two captains retired, the team had someone lined up to take over the captaincy, keeping the winning culture alive in the locker room.

“I think everything that comes down to Hank, he was always best when needed to,” Niklas Kronwall said to Dana Wakiji on DetroitRedWings.com. “Regardless of the state of the game, if you needed a goal or needed to shut it down, he was on the ice. He made it happen. That’s what stands out amongst the great players. Stevie (Yzerman) was the same way and Nick (Lidstrom) was the same way. Whenever it matters, they were always on top of the game. I think that’s something that he will always be remembered for.”

Now the team is a mishmash of over-the-hill veterans and almost-but-not-really-ready newcomers. None of them are the gamebreakers that Zetterberg and his predecessors were. There’s certainly no former Conn Smythe winner to carry the team forward. Sure, Kronwall may step into more of a leadership role in front of the cameras, but with his contract expiring at season’s end it’s likely Kronner will also call it a career.

The most natural progression is for Dylan Larkin to be named the next captain, though Ken Holland has hinted that they may just roll with three alternates. While a decision will be made at the end of training camp, Larkin is far from the type of players Lidstrom and Zetterberg were when they took over as captain.

In Detroit, the captaincy is different than anywhere else in the league. Each of the last three captains has been revered around the league and hailed as one of the best at one point of their careers. And that was before they undertook the captaincy.

For 22-year-old Larkin, he would be taking responsibility for a basement-dwelling team who will lose more games than they’ll win. To keep his teammates motivated and face the media night in and night out all while improving his own personal game is a lot to shoulder.

Larkin would be the youngest Red Wing captain since Yzerman. He led the team in points last year as he transitioned to a bigger role with more responsibility. He is hands down the team’s number one center going into the 2018-19 season, but that doesn’t mean that he’s ready to shoulder the legacy of being a Red Wings captain.

Larkin’s game continues to improve every year, but the fact that he’s not yet ready to take on the captaincy makes Zetterberg’s retirement unlike any other Red Wings captain’s retirement before him. This franchise has never played a season without a captain, but they haven’t been in a rebuilding state such as this since the Dead Wings era of the ‘80s. Management is treading lightly through this new territory, which means they will find new ways to tackle new challenges. Around the league, the “no captain” strategy is employed in more than a few cities, with the Vegas Golden Knights and Toronto Maple Leafs finding success regardless of whether a player wears the ‘C’ or not.

Just as the seasons are changing, so are the Detroit Red Wings. They aren’t going to name a captain just for the sake of naming one. It is a respected position in Detroit that has to be earned. The Wings will take their time in finding the next number that will hang beside 7, 9, 10, 12, 19, 5, and, soon, 40.