Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Captain Kane: Pass or Fail?

Well, the dog days of summer are upon us and little is happening in the hockey world. Some of the team has begun reporting to Atlanta and hockey season is closing in. As the season approaches, the team is still void of a captain after the departure of Ilya Kovalchuk midway through last season. So who should take the reigns?

There has been much speculation about possible candidates. Marty Reasoner was considered a strong candidate, but after being flipped to Chicago, then Florida weeks later, Reasoner is out of the running. Ron Hainsey is a vocal leader and one of the older faces in a relatively young locker room. Someone like Andrew Ladd has a captain's-like work ethic but has never played a game with the team. So who should the "C" go to?

First off, if I were Craig Ramsay I'd wait a month or three before awarding a "C" anyways. The captaincy should not be handed out during training camp and I'm sure Ramsay knows this.

In my humble opinion, the captaincy should be awarded to Evander Kane. Yes, Kane just turned 19 on August 2nd. But look at the four youngest permament captains in NHL history:

Sidney Crosby (19 years, 297 days)
Vincent Lecavalier (19 years, 315 days)
Jonathan Toews (20 years, 80 days)
Steve Yzerman (21 years, 151 days)

Trivia: do you know what all of those guys have in common? A Stanley Cup ring. In today's NHL, the shift towards younger captains has become more common. Alexander Ovechkin was named captain of the Capitals at age 24. Dustin Brown was named captain of the Los Angeles Kings at age 23. Rick Nash was named Blue Jackets captain at 24. The point? Age is merely a number these days when it comes to being a captain.

Kane appears to be well-respected by his teammates, most of whom sing high praise of Kane. And most importantly? It would solidify a captain's position in Atlanta that has rotated for years with a young, outspoken, hard-nosed kid that is well-recieved by the fan base.

The Thrashers have had seven captains in ten seasons. It doesn't take a math major to realize that that's a lot of captains in a little time. The only captain to ever have been a Thrashers draft pick was Kovalchuk, but he wasn't necessarily captain material anyways. Having a captain from within the organization would stabilize things and there would be consistent leadership from someone with a lot of pride in the organization.

Now, it seems like a radical idea and maybe it is. Kane would become the youngest captain in NHL history, but what's wrong with even more publicity? The Thrashers are a team searching for an identity, and Kane's game is exactly what the team is searching for. Some skill, some creativity, and all of that balanced out with a "never back down" attitude.

He may only be 19, but I see great positives in naming Evander Kane as the next captain of the Atlanta Thrashers.