The Chicago Blackhawks are one of seven NHL teams currently without a captain, and that won’t be changing anytime soon.
Per general manager Kyle Davidson, the Blackhawks will play the 2023 season without a team captain out of respect for former captain Jonathan Toews, who recently announced he could take the 2023 season off before returning to the NHL in 2024.
“The only plan right now is to sort of just let it breathe for a year,” Davidson told reporters on Tuesday. “We came off such a successful tenure with Jonathan that a little bit of it is just out of respect for Jonathan to not fill that spot right away. … There’s no requirement to have a captain, and so we just felt that it was best to leave that, push that decision a little bit, we’ll let the chips fall where they may.”
The two likeliest candidates for the position in 2024 are defenseman Seth Jones and 2023 No. 1 overall pick Connor Bedard.
