When Bryce Salvador announced his retirement Wednesday, he did so with a distinction not shared by many players. Salvador hung up his skates as the captain of the New Jersey Devils, a testament to both his leadership skills and his enduring excellence.
It’s not often a player retires as captain of his team. Most times the player either gets shuffled off to another team to finish his career or his play declines to the point where the ‘C’ is taken away from him and given to a younger player. To retire as captain of a team indicates the kind of continuity, reciprocal loyalty and long-lasting relationship you don’t see very often.
It’s a distinction reserved for the truly great leaders such as Jean Beliveau, Mark Messier and Steve Yzerman. There have been teams that have never had a player retire as captain. Surprisingly, the Edmonton Oilers are one of them. The Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild and Florida Panthers are the others, but depending on how things play out with Ed Jovanovski, that might change.
Listed below are each NHL team and the last player who finished his career wearing its ‘C’ on his sweater. (A couple of notes. George Armstrong retired as a life-long Toronto Maple Leaf in 1969, but had been replaced as captain by Dave Keon by the time he quit. Chris Pronger played his last NHL game with the Philadelphia Flyers as captain, but hasn’t yet retired and, in fact, had his rights traded to the Arizona Coyotes.)
TEAM CAPTAIN FINAL SEASON
Anaheim Scott Niedermayer 2009-10
Arizona Lars-Erik Sjoberg 1979-80
Boston Terry O’Reilly 1984-85
Buffalo Gilbert Perreault 1986-87
Calgary Steve Smith 2000-01
Carolina Rod Brind’Amour 2009-10
Chicago Dirk Graham 1994-95
Colorado Adam Foote 2010-11
Columbus None
Dallas J-P Parise 1978-79
Detroit Nicklas Lidstrom 2011-12
Edmonton None
Florida None
Los Angeles Bob Pulford 1971-72
Minnesota None
Montreal Bob Gainey 1988-89
Nashville Greg Johnson 2005-06
New Jersey Bryce Salvador 2014-15
NY Islanders Doug Weight 2010-11
NY Rangers Chris Drury 2010-11
Ottawa Laurie Boschman 1992-93
Philadelphia Keith Primeau 2005-06
Pittsburgh Mario Lemieux 2005-06
St. Louis Al MacInnis 2003-04
San Jose Rob Blake 2009-10
Tampa Bay Tim Taylor 2007-08
Toronto Ted Kennedy 1956-57
Vancouver Orland Kurtenbach 1973-74
Washington Rod Langway 1992-93
Winnipeg Scott Mellanby 2006-07