It is not about simply appointing a captain. It is about appointing the right captain.
Mark Messier, who knows more about this subject than anyone who has ever worn the Blueshirt, believes the Rangers have made the correct choice in naming Jacob Trouba as the 28th captain in franchise history.
“Leadership, in most cases, is never appointed, but earned,” No. 11 told The Post by text after sending a congratulatory text to Trouba earlier in the day. “As Abe Lincoln said, you have to earn the right to lead anybody.”
I thought that was a quote from Emile Francis, but the point is well taken. And there is a consensus throughout the organization, from president/general manager Chris Drury through head coach Gerard Gallant through his teammates in the room that the 28-year-old defenseman has indeed earned this calling.
For though the Blueshirts went quite famously with their six-alternates approach last season — their fourth straight without a captain in the wake of Ryan McDonagh’s 2018 deadline trade to Tampa Bay — it seems as if Trouba was the most equal among equals.
At the practice rink press briefing, Drury and Gallant both said Trouba had essentially been acting as de facto captain last year, if not longer. Chris Kreider sent a message onto social media: “If you ask the guys in that locker room, 100 percent will tell you that he’s been our captain without actually wearing the ‘C’ for the last couple of years.”
Trouba is a nine-year veteran who is entering his fourth year on Broadway, after spending six years in Winnipeg following his ninth-overall selection in 2012 by the Jets. He’s a hard-edged advertisement for the way Gallant expects his teams to compete. He may not always be on his game, but he always lays it all on the ice.
Always has his teammates’ backs.
And he always seems to be himself. He always seems to be genuine and comfortable in his skin. These are probably the interlocking two most important qualities a leader can possess. You can’t have a phony in that position. You ca n’t give the post to a player who might be worn down by the weight of the stitched “C” just above his heart.
You don’t want a player who will change as a captain any more than you want the captaincy to change a player. McDonagh has denied that the captaincy weighed on him through the nearly four years he served in that role as Ryan Callahan’s successor, but that is a lonely opinion.
And McDonagh is only the latest example. Brian Leetch didn’t seem to be especially comfortable when he was the captain for the three seasons between Messier’s two terms. Jaromir Jagr never really coveted the captaincy.
The Rangers do not want to be in that position again. That, plus the club’s metamorphosis through the rebuild that coincided with McDonagh’s exit, contributed to management’s decision to go with, well, an alternate approach in which leadership was a communal exercise.
“That’s actually something I’ve thought a fair bit about,” Trouba said when asked whether this added responsibility might change him. “The two times I can look back in my career, my second year I thought I was going to be a different player, and I struggled that year.
“Then coming here [in 2019] with the [$56 million] contract after being traded and all that, I was trying to be someone I wasn’t, I think, and struggled that year. So going into this, when I’m at my best, I’m myself.
“I’m not going to change who I am. The reason all this happened is because I was myself and true to myself,” No. 8 said. “I intend on being the same person.”
The defenseman said he first dreamed of being an NHL captain when he was a youngster growing up in Michigan, even noting his ambition in a journal he kept. It is clear this is not an ego thing for Trouba, whose physicality and open-ice menacing became one of the signatures of the Eastern Conference finalists. It is an enhanced opportunity to contribute to another run at the Stanley Cup that has eluded the Rangers for going on 29 years.
From what Messier has observed, Trouba is ready for it.
“I think he is old enough and experienced enough not to allow [the captaincy to change him],” Messier texted. “You see that from players who are not ready for this position and don’t know themselves yet, let alone the people they are supposed to lead.
“From the outside, it seems that he has earned this honor on and off the ice. He just needs to be himself, be authentic and consistent.
“Seems like a great choice.”
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