#1 Alex Ovechkin
The current Washington Capitals captain is also the number one captain of all time. Before you guys come after me with recency bias of selecting Alex Ovechkin as number one, hear me out. Back when he was bestowed team captain on Jan. 5, 2010 the critics came out in full force.
“Alex Ovechkin is not a team player” blah blah blah.
It took a while for Ovechkin to completely shut his haters up but he did exactly that in 2018 when the Capitals finally made it past the second round in his era and went en route to their first ever Stanley Cup. Even prior to that, Ovechkin didn’t deserve the blame as losing is entirely a team effort and not on just one player.
Being the captain hasn’t always been easy. Things got bad between him and then head coach Dale Hunter when he wanted him to play more defense. With them not clicking, Ovechkin’s ice time dropped.
Under Adam Oates, he rediscovered his offensive potential. At the same time however, that second year under Oates saw the Caps miss the playoffs. The team not only rebounded under Barry Trotz but would later finally break through.
Once they did, who else but Alex Ovechkin to lift the Stanley Cup.