Bruins to name captain by Opening Night

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The Boston Bruins are going to name a captain ahead of the start of the 2026-27 season, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney announced Wednesday.

“We are going to announce a captain this year, and we will do that before opening night, so nobody has to ask who it is or what not,” Sweeney said following his opening remarks at TD Garden. “We’ve spent a lot of time and we understand the legacy of our organization and we want to do it the right way. But we’ve made it perfectly clear that we’ll be doing that before the season starts.” 

Last season, and for the first time since the 2001-02 season, the Bruins went an entire season without a designated team captain wearing a ‘C’ on their sweater. Instead, the leadership group was headlined by David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, and Hampus Lindholm as Boston’s main three letter-wearing skaters. The Bruins also had both Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov don an ‘A’ on their jerseys at various points throughout the year as well.

Neely speaks

The Bruins have gone through just about every emotion a team can while not naming a captain. In fact, speaking during the WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon last month, Bruins president Cam Neely opened the door to the thought of the team remaining without a team captain for the second straight season.

Neely’s thought was that the Bruins didn’t need to name a captain if they did not feel that they had a natural option on their roster and in their locker room.

The Bruins’ leadership group — Neely, Sweeney, as well as Bruins head coach Marco Sturm — then met and clearly decided on a captain. But I had to know: Was this something that the Bruins decided they needed for the growth of the team (with clear, defined leadership roles) or something that they felt happened naturally over the course of the season and summer?

“I think I addressed the fact that we are going to name a captain. We took our time. We allowed the leadership [to develop] last year, and we know who’s at the forefront of that leadership group,” Sweeney told me. “Cam’s reference [during the telethon] is because there wasn’t a timetable. And being asked on the spot, there’s no reason for me to declare anything different than what I just did.

“We’ve been talking about this for a while. We know exactly what we’re going to do. And last year was a good example of allowing players that are going to be required in that leadership role to organically step forward, and we’re in a good place.” 

At this point, it feels like the captaincy decision for the Bruins is down to either McAvoy or Pastrnak, their two longest-tenured Bruins and top two talents. (The Bruins already seem to know who they’re picking and are going to keep the rest of us in the dark while they build their content game out for the announcement.)

If you want to read tea leaves, too, Sturm mentioned Pastrnak first when asked about the captaincy during a podcast appearance with the New England Hockey Journal’s Evan Marinofsky. McAvoy, meanwhile, spoke openly about how there would be no friction if he’s not named captain. Of course, both McAvoy and Pastrnak arrived to media day wearing the ‘A’ on their jersey, though that could’ve been to simply throw off the scent of any eagle-eyed lurkers hanging around outside the GBH studios.

The Bruins will open their season at TD Garden against the Rangers on Sept. 29.