Loading ...Captaincy is something important to every team, you give it to that one character guy who leads by example on and off the ice. But when the “c” is up for grabs, what do you do? And in The Blue Jackets case, how do you go about reassigning it? Do you just give it to someone? Or do you make them earn it?
When Rick Nash asked for a trade last deadline, the “c” on his chest was as good as gone after the season 
ended, there is no way, even if he comes back, that c stays on his jersey. Which now brings in the question, how will they go about assigning it again? Usually three big names have come up in that conversation, Jack Johnson, RJ Umberger, and Vinny Prospal. Each has their own case for being the captain of the team, but when it comes down to it, how would one decide? Each has a quality, and a flaw they would bring to the captaincy. But instead of just giving it to one of them, there is always another option…
Let this season play out, and find one guy who earns the captaincy. A team doesn’t necessarily need a captain right away, make it a real work process. Let the guys who lead on and off the ice come forward during the season (and it could be anyone), see who does the best job, and give that man the C. While just giving it to someone would be the easy way to do things, when you don’t have a central leader, the guys who want to be that guy will certainly step up to the plate, and take on the challenge of leading the team. A few surprises could come up, nobody knows, or it could be one of the three mentioned earlier.
With a team teetering on the edge of a rebuild (er…. “reshaping”) with youngsters and new faces, a new leader is a must, but the man who will lead The Blue Jackets into the future, should be the one who has earned that right through hard work and dedication to making the team better. And in my opinion, with so much riding on the future this season, there is no better year to take to decide who that man will be, than this one.