Washington Capitals History: Top 5 Captains Of All Time
Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
Honorable Mentions
Let’s start off with a list of the Washington Capitals captains. The following 14 players have at some point during their careers spent time as the Caps official captain.
Washington Capitals Captains
- Doug Mohns
- Bill Clement
- Yvon Labre
- Guy Charron
- Ryan Walter
- Rod Langway
- Kevin Hatcher
- Dale Hunter
- Adam Oates
- Steve Konowalchuk
- Brendan Witt
- Jeff Halpern
- Chris Clark
- Alex Ovechkin
Let’s remember some of the players who didn’t make the top five. Jeff Halpern was the Washington Capitals captain during the 2005-2006 season. He is a bit of a folk hero in DC as he was born and raised in DC.
He wasn’t that productive as a captain as far as points, but I think the 2005-2006 team matured a lot and considering its roster, did better than expected. When that happens, the captain probably deserves credit.
Adam Oates was a tad bit underwhelming as a captain. While he did produce points, he wasn’t that leader that some of the other guys were.
Like I said earlier, being a captain is a tough job that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Not everyone is cut out to be one, and that’s fine.
Steve Konowalchuk drew the short straw as he was a captain for some bad Caps teams from 2001 to 2003. I think he was a very good leader, but the Caps just didn’t have much talent back when he was the captain.
Doug Mohns was the captain of arguably the worst NHL team ever (the 1974-1975 Caps), so he deserves to be mentioned. He was drafted almost exclusively to lead the newest NHL team.
1974-1975 would be his last season in the NHL and is famous for being one of the first players to wear a helmet. He died in 2014.
Next: #5: A Captain Traded For Another