It’s a pretty safe bet that the Boston Bruins are not going to go through another season without a captain.
After the just-concluded campaign, where Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak were essentially co-captains under first-year head coach Marco Sturm, Cam Neely indicated earlier this week that discussions are already underway for the Bruins to name one player the 28th captain in franchise history for next season and beyond.
“I think obviously we would love to name a captain, but we’ve had some great captains here, so one of the things that we want to do is make sure we’re picking the right guy, and Marco is going to be a big part of that,” said Neely. “So having a new coach come in and implementing a new system, getting to know the players, I think it only made sense to see how the season played out, and then we’re going to have plenty.
“We’ve already started discussions about that, for sure, and we’re going to have plenty more in this offseason.”
Even if there is a captain named, the current leadership hierarchy would expect to remain in place, with McAvoy and Pastrnak essentially sharing duties as Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara did for so many years.
“When you’re talking about two players that are currently captains and a big, big part of our leadership group, you’re not in a position thinking you’re choosing between somebody,” said Don Sweeney. “They’re great people. They’re great teammates. They’re great Boston Bruins, so for us, we look at the big picture and say, where’s everybody in their own personal development, their own family dynamic, and who can impact us the most without impacting themselves and how they go about their daily life.
“Leadership is a collective process, and I think we proved this year that those guys took ownership of it. We grew, they grew, and now you’re going to eventually get to the point where you feel comfortable that we are going to have another captain here.”
But it was pretty remarkable to see Pastrnak step up and challenge the rest of the team in the season’s last episode of “Behind the B” as cameras caught him lighting everybody up after a disastrous first period of their Game 4 blowout loss at TD Garden.
David Pastrnak lighting into his team after the 1st period in Game 4 against the Sabres. There’s a lot more that goes into being a team captain than yelling at the room when they need to hear it, but this and the Game 5 response in Buffalo was good to see pic.twitter.com/wIXw5v7e4Z
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) May 8, 2026
Clearly there are some good arguments for McAvoy to be named captain as well, and he showed extremely good growth in all areas of leadership while shouldering his share of the burden leading the team this past season. McAvoy obviously played through tremendous pain, discomfort and adversity in being the team’s nominee for the Masterton Trophy and has grown into a more comfortable, composed spokesman for the team, win, lose, or draw, and would be a choice that nobody would quibble with if the “C” ended up going his way for next season and beyond.
But it comes somewhat undeniably who the true leader of this group is when Pastrnak steps up and talks in that kind of a pivotal moment and then steps up further to score the game-winning overtime goal in Game 5 to once again show character in returning the series to Boston after an embarrassing home loss.
Clearly the Czech right winger isn’t a leader in the style of Chara and Bergeron before him, but the 29-year-old did learn from those players during his early years while displaying his own flair for leadership that was more like an Alex Ovechkin, in the mind of his head coach, who also played with the Russian winger briefly during the 2010-11 season.
“He does it his way. Definitely not like a Chara or maybe even Bergeron. That’s the way he is and the way he’s fun to be around, guys feel it,” said Sturm earlier this season when asked about Pastrnak as a leader. “He tries to stay positive, and the stuff he does on the ice, that’s on top of it.
“So that’s where everyone is like ‘Wow, he is the whole deal.’ We’re all rooting for him.”
Regardless of whichever player earns the captaincy, the more important element is the
