San Jose Sharks Captains, look back and look forward

There is no equivalent to the NHL Captain in any other major US professional sport. The man who has a "C" on his sweater has a unique position, both in terms of rules and expectations. The team captain in hockey is the only player who is allowed to discuss penalties with a referee and he becomes the on-ice representative of the coach and the entire team, thus he is identified with the C (or an A for alternate captains who serve as sort of co-captains and can speak to the officials in place of the regular captain). You see these guys standing in front of the scorers tables waiting for the official to sort out penalties.

But the job also dictates that the Captain become the locker room leader of the team. Calling people out when they are not playing up to their abilities and making sure everyone is focused on the jobs and tasks at hand. The Sharks have had some interesting choices in terms of people who have had that C on their chest.

Doug Wilson, 1991–93

No brainer here. The team brought Wilson into give the Sharks some leadership and legitmacy. Tough spot to come into, being the captain on an expansion team. Nobody expects much from the team and sometimes the players do not expect much from themselves. The thing I remember about the first Sharks teams was that they played with heart and passion, which I think was a reflection of their Captains influence.

Wilson is now the GM and needs to find a way to ignite his team the way he did. I say he puts on his skates and gets out there with the boys and shows what a motivated player is capable of doing.

Bob Errey, 1993–95

Errey was an inspired choice, just as the trade to get him said "we mean to start winning" so did putting the C on his sweater serve notice to all the players on the team that it was time to have a winning attitude. Sharks make the playoffs for the first time under his watch. His 16 keys to playoff success should be read by the entire current Sharks roster, especially #11: Play Bigger.

Jeff Odgers, 1995–96

Odgers was a logical choice after Errey from an emotional point of view. He was a gamer, hard-nosed, respected by his teammates and good in the locker room. But, sometimes you need your captain to put the team on his shoulders, and he was not up to that task. Had he stuck around he probably would have wound up being a healthy scratch most of the time, and you can't have your Captain up in the pressbox. Still, even THAt would have been an improvement over what followed.

Todd Gill, 1996–98

This guy gets to go down as not only the worst captain in Sharks history, but maybe the worst captain in NHL history. His tenure coincided with the AL Sims era and was marked by piss-poor attitudes by most of the players and Gill being an alleged locker room cancer. The ironic thing is that the Sharks traded Jamie Baker, a guy who would have been a GREAT captain to get this doofus. Gil would later be known for beating up a teammate in a warm-up during a brief stint in Florida.

Owen Nolan, 1998–2003

On paper this was a great choice, Nolan had all the qualities that I listed for Odgers above, but in addition he was an offensive force who could put the team on his shoulders and carry it through tough spots. Nolan may be the best Captain in recent Sharks history, but I also think being captain hurt his game. He seemed to press more and always assumed that he needed to ALWAYS carry the team and never seemed to be in the position to call people out to play better, He may not have had a perfect attitude for a Captain who needs to be both critical AND supportive and he seemed to loose a little of the swagger he had when he got here. I am not a big fan of always making your best player your Captain. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. Nolan was an ultimate gamer, though, and I think the fact that he was not the same player when he was traded to Toronto had a lot to do with his being Captain and playing through a load of injuries.

Rotating captains for much of 2003–04

Mike Ricci (first 10 games)

Vincent Damphousse (next 20 games)

Alyn McCauley (next 10 games)

I thought this was a dumb idea at the time, but this was the year the Sharks got to the conference finals, so what do I know. Of the three, only Ricci stands out as captain material, but I think he may have just looked the part. Damphousse was a skilled player, but he did not seem to stand out as a leader. Maybe he was the quiet type. McCauley was the kind of player whose contributions don't really show on a stat sheet, but if legends are to be believed he is responsible for who came next. Apparently after McCauley pulled his 10 game stint as captain he came into the locker room, point at Patrick Marleau and said "There is your captain." Patty then wound up wearing the C for the rest of the season and into the playoffs.

Patrick Marleau, 2004– present

So, here we are, about five years (and one lockout) into one of the longest tenures for Sharks captains in franchise history, and where are we now? There is no questioning Marleau's talent, and in 2008 nobody was questioning his toughness when Calgary was deploying there Assault-with-a-deadly-weapon defensive tactics. But, is he captain material and I guess more to the point is he the reason the Sharks have taken an early out in the playoffs every year since reaching the conference finals?

I think Marleau is in the same boat as Nolan was. He is an obviously talented hockey player and he is obviously one of the best players on the team. Marleau has delivered in the playoffs before, although maybe not on a consistent or spectacular basis, but I think that perhaps his performance suffers from being captain. He also seems to be the strong, silent type and not the locker room go to guy. Is this his fault? DId it all come too soon for him?

People are all different. Obviously Sidney Crosby's playoff performance (with the exception, if you ask Kris Draper, of his handshake) has not been hurt by his being the youngest captain in NHL history. What does Crosby have that Marleau doesn't? The answer is simple; Evgeni Malkin.

Crosby has had a playoff season for the ages and now his name is on the Stanley Cup, but a lot of his success is owed to the fact that Malkin played not only up to his regular season level, but above it. Well above it. Imagine how much better Marleau would be playing if another of the forwards was playing to the level they were expected to play. Maybe the Sharks did not need Jonathan Cheecho to play at his 50 goal form of a few seasons back in the regular season, but that's the level of play he needs to be at in the playoffs. Cheecho or Michalek or ANYONE playing up to their regular season potential would have made the subject of Marleau as captain less of an issue. Hell, Sidney Crosby has scored more goals in this playoff season than Joe Thornton has in his entire playoff career! Shoot the freaking puck, Joe! The Penguins responded even with Detroit throwing Henrik Zetterberg all over Crosby. The rest of the team stepped up when everyone was worried about Crosby.

So, with the team's heart being questioned, what do the Sharks do about their Captain? Marleau is one of the most talented guys in the league and during the regular season he is an amazing asset to have. He has had decent playoff performances, just not lately and now the Sharks have to look at Anaheim and what they did to them in the playoffs and expect that kind of treatment in the regular season. If every team stands pat (which they won't) I doubt the Sharks will win their division, they may not even make the top four. They are going to need players who will claw opponents to death and do the dirty work like Anaheim. Just take a look at how tired Detroit looked in the last few games of the Finals, they clearly were suffering a Ducks-induced hangover weeks after that series ended.

So, can Marleau be the Captain of that kind of team? Probably not. Would shipping your captain elsewhere result in the team being shaken up and responding? You would hope so, but also probably not. Does the team make the playoffs if they stand pat, and will they go deeper than one round? Also probably not.

So it feels like the Sharks are damned if you do, damned if you don't. So the damning question is; what do you do? If it were me, I make the move. Marleau is not the kind of Captain the Sharks need, and you can't keep him and strip him of the C, so you're only hope is that you can get one or two players for him who will be difference makers in the playoffs and who can maybe light a fire under Thornton through examples of the way they play.

I don't know who that player might be, all I know is that I don't think he is on the current Sharks roster and it certainly isn't Patrick Marleau.