The Seattle Kraken have not had a team captain for over two years. The franchise’s original talisman, Mark Giordano, was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in March 2022 in the franchise’s first season of existence. Since then, the club has operated with a few alternate captains. Given that the team is now in semi-rebuilding mode insofar as they need to get back to the playoffs and just hired a new head coach in Dan Bylsma, the time has come to nominate a new team captain.
The Importance of a Team Captain
A player with an upper case “C” on their jersey above their heart (or an armband, or a star, etc.) leads by example, with wise words on the bench or the touchline, with common sense and motivational speeches in the dressing room, at practice in the morning, or whatever the case may be. That one player about whom everyone else on the ice can say with confidence, “This is our guy who will lead us into the fire, and I’m okay with that. I will dance into the fire with them.”
Which NHL teams do not have captains? The Anaheim Ducks, Buffalo Sabres, Chicago Blackhawks, Utah’s new club, and the Kraken. Who missed the playoffs in 2023-24? The Ducks, Sabres, Hawks, Utah, and Kraken, among others. Who wasn’t very good this season? Ducks, Sabres, Hawks, Utah, and Kraken. Were there other teams with captains that missed the playoffs? Yes. But not having one seems to leave a hole in a team’s spirit.
Those teams that experienced admirable campaigns in 2023-24, including the playoffs (the Stanley Cup Finals are about to commence as of this writing), have great captains. The Florida Panthers have Aleksander Barkov. The Edmonton Oilers have Connor McDavid. The Vancouver Canucks have Quinn Hughes. The Dallas Stars have Jamie Benn. The Carolina Hurricanes have Jordan Staal. The New York Rangers have Jacob Trouba. Yes, the latter is a bit of a controversial figure, but, darn it, he leads that group. Trouba aside, nobody disrespects Benn, McDavid, Barkov, Hughes, or Staal. They add to the respectability of those teams.
Think of the captains of some teams that missed the playoffs. Brady Tkachuk and the Ottawa Senators. Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Nick Suzuki and the Montreal Canadiens. Their teams aren’t perfect, nor are they (well, Crosby practically is), but no one around the league sees them when they step on the ice and says, “Oh god, not that loser again.”
Simply put, the Kraken need a player to help them out of the miasma of mediocrity.
Seattle’s Nominees
As of this writing, a quartet of players serve as alternate captains: Yanni Gourde, Jaden Schwartz, Jordan Eberle, and Adam Larsson.
Two of them are in precarious positions. That’s a fanciful way of saying they are entering contract seasons. Gourde and Larsson have deals that conclude on June 30, 2025, at which point they become unrestricted free agents (UFA). While both are NHL stalwarts – Gourde even won two Stanley Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning – it would be strange to award the captaincy to a player during a contract negotiation. The club could always hold off on naming either one captain until a long-term deal is signed and sealed, but we’re operating under the premise that someone will be wearing the “C” on opening night.
Related: Seattle Kraken’s 2nd Round Options at 2024 Draft
That leaves us with Eberle and Schwartz. Both have two years left on their deals, meaning there is no concern about negotiations until the 2025-2026 campaign or even in the summer of 2026, and both are in their 30s – Eberle is 34 and Schwartz 31.
Eberle has been around the block. Drafted in 2008, he was selected in the first round when the Oilers started raking in the coveted draft picks. He witnessed the arrival of Ryan Nugent Hopkins and McDavid and played with both for multiple seasons. He was a six-year veteran when McDavid’s tallied his first 100-point season (2016-2017). He was also there for the “pretty good but never” great New York Islanders campaigns of the late 2010s.
Schwartz spent most of his career with the St. Louis Blues – winning the Stanley Cup in 2019 – before joining the Kraken mid-season in 202. He’s a veteran, but it’s never clicked in Seattle as it did in St. Louis. Schwartz has had a negative goal differential in each of the past three seasons, and it hasn’t even been close with a minus-13, minus-17, and minus-15. He never posted those figures with the Blues, and that franchise did not consistently dominate the NHL. With no disrespect, Schartz would solely be nominated because he’s a veteran. That counts for something, but his statistics aren’t good enough to wear the “C”.
Dark Horse Candidate: Vince Dunn
General manager Ron Francis, Bylsma, and whoever else is involved in the process are capable of making the correct decision, but one player, in particular, would make an interesting choice, and as of this writing, he doesn’t wear an “A” on his chest.
Why not name defenseman Vince Dunn captain? He’s 27 years old and a seven-year veteran. He’s too old to be young but too young to be old. In other words, he’s technically in the prime of his career. Like Schwartz, he has a ring from his time in St. Louis. Other than the franchise’s maiden season, which wasn’t very good for anyone, Dunn has been incredibly consistent.
He tallied 64 points in 81 matches in 2022-23 and was a plus-28. This season, he finished with 46 points in 59 games and was a plus-8. He was also the team’s best player. Unfortunately, he was injured quite a bit. To that point, we wrote in late March about how his absence greatly affected Seattle’s chase for a postseason spot down the stretch.
When he’s healthy, the team tends to play well. When he’s absent, they tend not to. His exit interview in late April was impressively cerebral, picking out little factors about what he could have done better and what the club as a whole should have done. He also speaks and sounds intelligent in front of the camera. Of course, locker room talk is not as pristine and proper as a formal exit interview, but he knows how to communicate effectively, and that should count for something.
It’s hard to argue that things have worked out well for the Kraken in the two seasons they haven’t had a captain. It’s been patently average, and in a league as competitive as the NHL, average gets you nowhere. All teammates encourage and cheer each other on. Nobody always plays on the same shift together. That said, the Kraken need a singular voice from someone in the trenches, and Dunn is a great candidate.
