Twenty-three of the NHL’s 32 teams have a captain for the 2026-27 season. Nine do not — Anaheim, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Los Angeles, the New York Islanders, Ottawa, San Jose and Vancouver. That is 28.1% of the league, and it is among the highest counts of vacant captaincies in modern NHL history.
The number was ten until 2 September 2026, when St. Louis named Robert Thomas the 25th captain in Blues history. That appointment ended a leaguewide drought of 11 and a half months. Before Thomas, no NHL team had named a captain since J.T. Miller in New York on 18 September 2025 — a stretch covering the whole of the 2025-26 season, a trade deadline, a draft and a free agency period, during which eight teams lost a captain and none replaced one.
Every NHL captain, 2026-27
| Team | Captain | Pos | Named |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anaheim Ducks | vacant | — | — |
| Boston Bruins | vacant | — | — |
| Buffalo Sabres | Rasmus Dahlin | D | 2024 |
| Calgary Flames | Mikael Backlund | C | 2023 |
| Carolina Hurricanes | Jordan Staal | C | 2019 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | vacant | — | — |
| Colorado Avalanche | Gabriel Landeskog | LW | 2012 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | vacant | — | — |
| Dallas Stars | Jamie Benn | LW | 2013 |
| Detroit Red Wings | Dylan Larkin | C | 2021 |
| Edmonton Oilers | Connor McDavid | C | 2016 |
| Florida Panthers | Aleksander Barkov | C | 2018 |
| Los Angeles Kings | vacant | — | — |
| Minnesota Wild | Jared Spurgeon | D | 2021 |
| Montreal Canadiens | Nick Suzuki | C | 2022 |
| Nashville Predators | Roman Josi | D | 2017 |
| New Jersey Devils | Nico Hischier | C | 2021 |
| New York Islanders | vacant | — | — |
| New York Rangers | J.T. Miller | C | 2025 |
| Ottawa Senators | vacant | — | — |
| Philadelphia Flyers | Sean Couturier | C | 2024 |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | Sidney Crosby | C | 2007 |
| San Jose Sharks | vacant | — | — |
| Seattle Kraken | Jordan Eberle | RW | 2024 |
| St. Louis Blues | Robert Thomas | C | 2026 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | Victor Hedman | D | 2024 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | Auston Matthews | C | 2024 |
| Utah Mammoth | Clayton Keller | RW | 2024 |
| Vancouver Canucks | vacant | — | — |
| Vegas Golden Knights | Mark Stone | RW | 2021 |
| Washington Capitals | Alex Ovechkin | LW | 2010 |
| Winnipeg Jets | Adam Lowry | C | 2023 |
Verified against NHL.com’s official list of captains and individual team announcements, 7 September 2026.
How many NHL teams have no captain in 2026-27?
Nine NHL teams have no captain going into the 2026-27 season: Anaheim, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Los Angeles, the New York Islanders, Ottawa, San Jose and Vancouver. Two of those vacancies are long-standing — Boston has been without a captain since Brad Marchand was traded in March 2025, and San Jose since Logan Couture stepped away from playing in 2025. The other seven opened during the past nine months. Several are expected to be filled before opening night on 29 September, but as of 7 September only St. Louis has actually done it.
Which teams may not name a captain at all?
Boston is the team that has most clearly signalled it may play a second consecutive season without a captain. Bruins president Cam Neely said in August 2026 that he does not know whether a team “necessarily needs to have a guy” unless one player clearly stands out, and that he would rather have 20 leaders; David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy are the names most often raised. Vancouver named a new alternate captain rather than a captain after trading Quinn Hughes, and has given no public indication that will change during its rebuild. Anaheim, Chicago and Columbus have said nothing either way.
Who is the longest-serving captain in the NHL?
Sidney Crosby is the longest-serving captain in the NHL, and by a wide margin. Crosby was named captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins on 31 May 2007 and enters 2026-27 in his 20th season wearing the C — 19 years and four months at opening night. The next-longest tenures belong to Alex Ovechkin in Washington, captain since January 2010, Gabriel Landeskog in Colorado since September 2012, and Jamie Benn in Dallas since September 2013. The average tenure among the league’s 23 sitting captains is 6.3 years and the median is 5.6, meaning Crosby has held his C roughly three and a half times longer than the typical NHL captain.
How many NHL captains are defencemen?
Four of the NHL’s 23 captains are defencemen: Rasmus Dahlin in Buffalo, Jared Spurgeon in Minnesota, Roman Josi in Nashville and Victor Hedman in Tampa Bay. That number halved over the past year. Quinn Hughes and Radko Gudas were both traded away from clubs where they wore the C, taking the count from six to four. Centres dominate the role with 13 of 23, and six captains are wingers. The positional skew is long-standing: centres take the majority of faceoffs and play in all situations, which puts them on the ice for the moments captains are expected to speak for.
Can a goaltender be an NHL captain?
No goaltender can serve as an NHL captain under the current rules. Rule 6.1 of the NHL rulebook effectively bars it by preventing a goaltender from performing the captain’s on-ice function of discussing rule interpretations with officials. The last workaround came in Vancouver, where Roberto Luongo was designated captain from 2008 to 2010 while an alternate handled the on-ice duties; the league closed that route afterwards.
Verified 7 September 2026.
