The Winnipeg Jets will not have a captain at the start of the season, the team announced Friday.
Forward Blake Wheeler had been captain for the past six seasons; he was named to the role Aug. 31, 2016. Forward Mark Scheifele and defenseman Josh Morrissey were alternate captains last season, as was forward Paul Stastny, who signed with the Carolina Hurricanes on Aug. 23.
“It is the determination of the coaching staff that we will enter the 2022-23 season without a specific captain, but rather a group of assistants still to be determined,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said. “It is our goal to expand the leadership base within our hockey team. We have high expectations for our core players and we want to provide them with the opportunity to step into those greater leadership roles as a group.”
Wheeler, 36, is the longest-tenured player on the Jets, having been with the team since the 2010-11 season prior to them relocating from Atlanta. He ranks first in points (757) and assists (511), and second in games (825) and goals (246) in Jets/Thrashers history.
“Obviously, it was a shock to me,” Scheifele said Friday at the NHL North American Player Media Tour in Las Vegas. “Blake Wheeler has been the captain of this team for so long. He’s a guy we’ve all looked up to, we all model ourselves after. We all still look up to him. Obviously, it’s going to be weird with him not actually having the ‘C’, but I think it just gives the opportunity for more guys to step in and feel like they’re able to talk.
“We have so many older guys, guys that have been around for a long time. It gives the opportunity for a guy like Kyle Connor or Nikolaj Ehlers or Adam Lowry to feel like we’re doing this together. We’re doing this as a team. It’s not one guy. It’s not two guys. It’s not three guys. It’s a whole team of leading and we all have to be in it together, we all lean on each other, we all care for each other, we all support each other, and I think that’s what we need.”
The Jets (39-32-11) missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in five seasons, finishing eight points behind the Nashville Predators for the second wild card from the Western Conference last season. Coach Paul Maurice resigned Dec. 17 and was replaced by Dave Lowry. Lowry was replaced by Bowness on July 3.
“We have a bunch of really good guys that love hockey that want to work on their game and want to get better and we have a really good room and I think we just kind of were lost last year,” Scheifele said. “We almost were kind of in search of something. With the coach leaving and an interim guy coming in, we were kind of a little bit of a lost group last year.”
Winnipeg is one of seven NHL teams without a captain, along with the Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames, Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.
NHL.com staff writer Tom Gulitti contributed to this report