Longest serving captain in NHL ice hockey (2024)

FAQs

Longest serving captain in NHL ice hockey? ›

Sidney Crosby, the longest tenured captain in the NHL, and captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins since 2007. The captain can be identified by the large "C" on his jersey.

Sidney Crosby, the longest tenured captain in the NHL, and captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins since 2007. The captain can be identified by the large "C" on his jersey.

Gardiner was Chicago's captain when they won the Stanley Cup in 1934, and was the only goalie-captain to do so. The last goalie to become captain was Montreal goalie Bill Durnan. He became captain in 1947-48 and he's the reason for Rule 14D. He spent so much time talking to refs that games actually got longer!

Wayne Gretzky

Gretzky joins Messier and Terry Ruskowski as the only three players in league history to have captained three different NHL franchises (although Gretzky briefly filled in as Rangers captain).

Ray Bourque | 1988-2000

His 15-year run as captain is the longest in Bruins history. The Hall of Fame defenseman played 21 seasons in Boston, winning five Norris Trophies as the league's top defenseman - the fourth-most in league history.

Though rare, co-captaincy isn't a new concept in the NHL. Rick Middleton and Ray Bourque shared the captaincy in Boston from 1985-88. More recently, Danny Briere and Chris Drury served as co-captains in Buffalo from 2005-07. Team leadership doesn't end with the letters, either.

Wayne Gretzky (1983-88): The NHL's all-time scoring leader was named captain before the 1983-84 season and held the job for five seasons, four ending with the Oilers winning the Stanley Cup.

His contract soon was sold to the Edmonton Oilers, who joined the NHL at the beginning of the 1979–80 season. As centre and team captain, Gretzky led the Oilers to four Stanley Cup victories (in the 1983–84, 1984–85, 1986–87, and 1987–88 seasons).

Who was captain before Wayne Gretzky? ›

Gretzky was 17 when he joined the Oilers in 1978 in their last season in the World Hockey Association, and 22 when he was appointed the NHL team's captain in 1983.

G. Goals. A goal is awarded to the last player on the scoring team to touch the puck prior to the puck entering the net.

McDavid, who Edmonton selected first overall in 2015, is 19 years, 266 days old. He's 20 days younger than Gabriel Landeskog was when the Colorado Avalanche made him the youngest captain in league history in 2012.

The rules of the NHL do not permit goaltenders to be designated as captains, because of the logistical challenge of having the goaltender relay rules discussions between referees and coaches and then return to the crease .

P or PTS – Points – Scoring points, calculated as the sum of G and A. S - Shots on Goal - Total number of shots taken on net in the current season.

Jean Beliveau

In that time, Beliveau led the Canadiens to five Stanley Cups, which is the record for most Cups won by a team captain. Beliveau also won the first ever Conn Smythe Trophy as the league's most valuable player during the postseason back in 1965.

At 19 years and 266 days old, McDavid became the youngest captain in NHL history, unseating Gabriel Landeskog, who was 20 days older when he became captain of the Colorado Avalanche in 2012.

Wayne Gretzky is the only player in NHL history to captain four different teams. Even though he played two decades in the NHL and served in a captain's role for most of his career, No. 99 only lifted the Stanley Cup with one of these clubs.

Following his successful rookie campaign, Toews was named team captain of the Blackhawks on July 18, 2008.

Has anyone won a Stanley Cup without a captain? ›

NHL clubs do not win the Stanley Cup without having a superstar player lead the team in spirit or as captain.

After winning the Stanley Cup for the first time at the age of 21 years, 10 months and 5 days, Sydney Crosby set a record by becoming the youngest captain to do so. The Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings in the 2009 Stanley Cup finals.

Dirk Graham had already made history with the Blackhawks in 1989, when he became the NHL's first black captain. He retired in 1995, spent one season as an assistant under Craig Hartsburg, took a year off and returned as a scout.

He retired following the 1987–88 IHL season. Bill McCreary is most remembered for his open ice hit on Wayne Gretzky on January 3, 1981. The myth that McCreary never played another shift in the NHL is false – the January 3 game was McCreary's second game in his 12-game NHL career.

If Wayne Gretzky never scored a single goal, he would still be the NHL's all-time scoring leader with 1,963 points. It's one of the most incredulous stats in all of sports, one that best exemplifies The Great One's greatness.

The first player to play 500 consecutive games was Murray Murdoch, who played his 500th consecutive game during the 1936–37 season, the 20th season of the NHL. Phil Kessel is the current record holder, having played 1,000+ games consecutively; likewise, he is the only player to have recorded 1,000 consecutive games.

Randy Exelby's NHL career consisted of three minutes of ice time with the Montreal Canadiens and 60 minutes with the Edmonton Oilers. Every season, dozens of players get their first chance to play in the NHL. Playing in that first NHL game is something they'll always remember.

Twins Daniel Sedin (front, 1,306 games) and Henrik Sedin (1,330 games) are the only pair of brothers to play all their 1,000 games with one team. Dave Keon amassed 1,296 games in his career, and was one of the first players to reach the 1,000 game milestone.

On October 5, 2016, the Oilers named McDavid their captain for the 2016–17 season. At 19 years and 266 days old, McDavid became the youngest captain in NHL history, unseating Gabriel Landeskog, who was 20 days older when he became captain of the Colorado Avalanche in 2012.

Who is the longest tenured trio in NHL? ›

Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera as the longest tenured trio of teammates in NHL/MLB/NFL/NBA history.

Alex Ovechkin (154), Sidney Crosby (85), and Steven Stamkos (80) have more. Crosby, Malkin, and Letang are the longest-serving trio in NHL history, playing on the Pittsburgh Penguins for 16 consecutive seasons.

McDavid reached 800 points in just 545 games making him the fifth-fastest player to reach that milestone. Only Wayne Gretzky (352 games), Mario Lemieux (410), Mike Bossy (525) and Peter Stastny (531) did it quicker.

Yzerman holds the NHL record as the longest-serving captain of a single team – he spent 19 seasons and 1,303 games wearing the "C".

Former NHL star Alexei Kovalev was a skilled offensive talent, who often took extremely long shifts. On one occasion in 1994, he took a shift for 65 seconds, which angered his head coach Mike Keenan because it was too long. Keenan thought of an idea to teach Kovalev a lesson.

Born May 21st, 1981, Craig Anderson is currently the oldest active NHL player. Anderson is 41 years of age and one year older than the NHL's next oldest player. The US-born netminder is currently the backup goalie for the Buffalo Sabres, where he has started 15 games in the 2022-23 season.

In between, Hillman would be making plenty of hockey history. Hillman, who died Friday at the age of 85, remains the youngest player to win the Stanley Cup in NHL history. He was 18 years, two months and nine days of age when he won the Cup with the 1954-55 Red Wings.

6 players are tied for the most career championships by an active player, with 3 championships. The first three are Pat Maroon, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.

Maroon now joins Ed Litzenberger (Chicago, Toronto – 1961-63) and Eddie Gerard (Ottawa, Toronto – 1920-22) as the only players to win three Cups in a row with two different teams. Gerard would go on to win four straight titles.