It feels like there was never a time when the Boston Bruins had any doubt about the captaincy for their hockey team.
Brad Marchand’s candidacy seemed like a fait accompli last couple of seasons, and Patrice Bergeron was essentially serving as co-captain with Zdeno Chara for more than a decade, even when Big Zee was wearing the “C” for his 14 seasons in Boston.
So it was a natural transition when Chara gave way to No. 37 for a few seasons, with him wearing the “C” as well.
But prior to Chara’s arrival in Boston, there was no captain following the seismic Joe Thornton trade to the San Jose Sharks, a short B’s era that new head coach Marco Sturm lived through as the Bruins struggled to form an identity between iconic leaders with Bergeron still developing as a budding 20-year-old NHL star.
“So, when I got traded [to Boston in the] Joe Thornton trade, I mean…it was not my fault,” said Sturm with a smile on his face about the unpopular deal that saw him, Wayne Primeau and Brad Stuart sent to Boston in exchange for Jumbo Joe in his prime. “But I got here, and it was difficult. I'm not going to lie…it was difficult because everyone loved Joe and it was a big trade. But I understood really quickly why it did happen. We had [young] guys in the locker room, they wanted them to lead so I saw that [for a] year or two, it was a little painful. It was not easy.
“As soon as you read the paper or social media, or even you go on the street, people will let you know [if you are struggling]. But also, it will push you. That's what I saw [in a] positive way, and then I mentioned it before the [ensuing] years after that, especially when Claude [Julien] took over [in 2007-08]…you could see the process. You could see every year how we got better, and all of a sudden I see a big change here in the city of Boston because they're behind you. That feeling alone, it still feels like yesterday to me, and that's exactly what I want to bring back [to the Bruins]. Forget about winning and losing. Yes, we have to win. I know that. But even when there were tough stretches [and] tough games, you knew that feeling. Hopefully the fans in the city of Boston will feel it every time they going to watch us play. We [have] got to compete. We're going to be structured, I can tell you that, but we also got to compete and make everyone proud.”
It's more than likely that the “painful” times Sturm alluded to may be looming for parts of this upcoming season after the bottom dropped out for the Black and Gold last year. It sure doesn’t feel like it’s going to be a complete 180-degree turn for the Bruins based on their summer improvements, but instead a gradual, effort-filled, consistent push with work ethic, hard hockey, and fundamentally sound defense and goaltending will lead the way.
In other words, there are going to be, at the very least, intermittent times when it feels like a slog, even if the Bruins come out better on the other side toward the end of the season. That clearly doesn’t feel like an ideal situation to drop a first-time captain into for a Boston Bruins team still desperately trying to shake the bad mojo from last season, and deliberately rebuilding things over the next few years.
For all those reasons and more, it feels like the Bruins aren’t going to go with a captain to start next season for the first time in two decades. That was apparent when the Bruins released photos of both David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy showing off Boston’s revamped uniforms for next season with both players wearing their usual “A” on their sweaters.
It doesn’t mean they won’t have strong leadership, as both Pastrnak and McAvoy have worn the “A” for the last couple of seasons, and they will seemingly continue to do so to start next season as well.
It’s something that Sturm said he was very comfortable with to start this season, as he gets to know both players and gets to know how they act under different hockey situations.
Marco Sturm's Perspective About Picking The Next Bruins Captain:@FelgerAndMazz @mikefelger @TonyMassarotti @bigjimmurray @IAmJamesStewart @MaggioreKevin @LukeGraham05 pic.twitter.com/QMvMftZ47L
— 98.5 The Sports Hub (@985TheSportsHub) June 10, 2025
“You can…you can. It’s a possibility I would say,” said Sturm when asked about going into next season without a captain during an interview on the Felger and Mazz Show back in June after freshly being named head coach of the Bruins. “We’ve talked about it a little bit and I think it will come up again. The one thing I’ve told them is that I know [David] Pastrnak, I know [Hampus] Lindholm and I know [Charlie] McAvoy…I’ve seen them play.
“But I don’t know them as a person and I’d like to get to know them first. I want to see it and I want to feel it when I work with them every day…then we will know. That’s something we will have to address.”
It's the right call with such a weighty role chock full of responsibilities, and with a couple of strong "C" candidates that can shoulder the burden together as Chara and Bergeron did so effectively for many, many successful years in Boston.
Certainly, Pastrnak played like a captain at the end of last season while suiting up every day in a trying, losing situation, and helped push linemates Elias Lindholm and Morgan Geekie to immensely productive stretches in the season’s final few weeks. And he was leading with his words and actions as well as his play on the ice, a role that he shouldered while McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm were both shelved with injuries.
“The leaders I had around me, it was never about who wears the C or who wears the A,” said Pastrnak at the end of last season when asked about wearing the ‘C’. “Everybody in the room is equal here, and that’s one of the things that we have to [do is] find a core group again that is willing to put the work in. It’s not about one guy. It’s gonna be multiples of us and we need to be working together.
“It doesn’t matter who’s gonna end up wearing any letter, but it starts in the group. Everybody’s equal here, no matter if you’re younger or older. That’s what it’s always been like, and we have to keep it going.”
David Pastrnak on potentially taking over as Bruins captain:
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) March 10, 2025
“I don’t think about it, honestly. “I got the ‘A’ and I haven’t changed a bit. The role changed a little bit, you lead more.
"But you just try to stay being yourself. Right now, we have 17 games left and that’s my… pic.twitter.com/HxXJtLjMCe
Pastrnak even answered that question like a captain, a nod to the steady leadership learned from guys like Chara and Bergeron when he was a younger player that’s now being looked at to carry the Black and Gold torch into the next era of Cup contention. It may be a year or two away, but there is little doubt that Pastrnak and McAvoy will be shouldering that leadership load along with a few other emerging B’s players over the next couple of seasons.