The Chicago Blackhawks have officially finalized their leadership group for the 2023-24 season.
Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson said on Monday that Seth Jones and Connor Murphy will be permanent alternate captains this season, and Nick Foligno and Corey Perry will rotate wearing the third "A."
"We’re going to continue on with Seth and Murph," Richardson said. "They’ve done a great job. They’ve been here and I’ve put a lot of onus on veteran leaders but also guys who have put time in here. They’ve been here.
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"And bringing in Nick and Corey Perry, that’s why they’re here. They’re here to lead. So they’re going to split home and away. I think it's going to be Corey at home the first half of the season and Nick on the road the first half of the season and then we’ll flip flop that."
Richardson noted veterans like Tyler Johnson and Taylor Hall may not wear a letter on their sweaters, but they'll be looked upon to lead as well. The Blackhawks could have given it to quite a few players.
As announced earlier in training camp, the Blackhawks will not have a captain for the first time since 2008. Jonathan Toews held that title for the last decade and a half.
"The only plan right now is to sort of just let it breathe for a year," Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson said at the beginning of training camp. "We came off such a successful tenure with Jonathan that, a little bit of it is just out of respect for Jonathan, to not fill that spot right away.
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"And the other part is not to put that pressure on someone else when you're coming out of a period of such, call it greatness, right? And you want the next person to be in a position to succeed. And there's no requirement to have a captain, and so we just felt that it was best to leave that, push that decision a little bit, we'll let the chips fall where they may.
"Over the next year, we'll see who emerges, see what the best option is, and decide next year if it's appropriate to name someone, we'll just take that as it comes."