Boston Bruins will start season without a team captain, says GM Don Sweeney
The Boston Bruins have a new head coach in Marco Sturm, but the team will not have a captain to start the 2025-26 NHL season.
Boston has been looking to stitch a "C" on someone's sweater since last March, when captain Brad Marchand was dealt to the Florida Panthers on trade deadline day. Veteran Bruins David Pastrnak or Charlie McAvoy were the likeliest of candidates to become to team's new captain, after they rocked the "A" as alternate captains throughout last season. The duo ran the team's "Captains' practices" at Warrior Ice Arena in Brighton last week, despite neither of them being the team's captain.
They won't be the captain to start the season, either. Boston general manager Don Sweeney said the Bruins will go into the 2025-26 campaign without someone holding the title of team captain.
"Everything is on the table right now. We've been forward with everybody and honest with everybody that we're going to start without it," Sweeney told reporters Tuesday at the Bruins annual golf tournament in Plymouth. "We've got a leadership group that's been meeting amongst themselves, and I think somebody will emerge as the guy that should be the next captain."
Given the responsibilities of a team captain, Sweeney would like to see one naturally emerge during training camp or early in the season, rather than have Sturm simply name a new captain with a group he's still getting familiar with.
"We'll move forward with the leadership group that's being established, let Marco have his own communication with them, and let them communicate among themselves about the direction they want to take this team, and who ultimately emerges as the next captain of the Boston Bruins," said Sweeney.
Whoever ultimately takes over as captain will have a lot on their plate to get the Bruins back on track in 2025-26. The team fell apart in the second half last season and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
Waiting on a captain is a change from the last two decades in Boston, when there was a natural progression in the team's captaincy. Zdeno Chara got the "C" immediately after he signed with the team in 2006, and held the honor until the 2020-21 season, when All-Time Bruin Patrice Bergeron took over.
Bergeron was the Bruins captain for three seasons before he retired following the 2022-23 season. Marchand held the title for a season-and-a-half before he was traded to Florida.