Marco Sturm Addresses Lack of Bruins Captain

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Another decision the Boston Bruins will consider making this offseason is whether or not to name a captain before they take the ice in the fall.

They did not for the 2025-26 season, opting for three alternate captains instead. David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, and Hampus Lindholm wore the ‘A’s’ on their sweater, while many more veteran players emerged as leaders throughout the campaign.

Now, Marco Sturm is not too sure. He liked what the Bruins had, and he said it during breakup day on Sunday.

“I always said I wanted a captain, but now, being through that first time, me as a head coach, not having a captain, I thought it went real well,” said Sturm. “I just, maybe because guys were really close, the leadership group, I thought they did a good job overall. Everyone had their input. There was no outsider. We always kept it really tight. So I actually didn’t mind it.”

“Having said that, that will be more of a conversation to have with Don [Sweeney], how we are going to move forward,” Sturm added. “But personally, I liked how we handled, and especially the players, how they handled this situation all year long.”

Sturm did not commit to naming a captain before the 2026-27 season.

After all, Sweeney met with McAvoy and Pastrnak early last summer to discuss how they planned to bring the culture back. Then Sweeney said he was not going to rush to name the next ‘C,’ but instead it will be someone who “emerges” as the man for the role.

“Leading into the year, we met with Sweens (Don Sweeney) this time last year, and we talked a lot about how we wanted to reestablish the culture. We spent a lot of time in the offseason doing that and trying to have a real strategic game plan on what we wanted to do, how we wanted to grow, me and David [Pastrnak] as leaders, getting more people to be a part of the leadership group,” alternate captain Charlie McAvoy said. “We put some onus on guys to want to be leaders and be a part of it, and everybody did amazing.”

Sturm also said that he doesn’t think having a captain is any more beneficial in the postseason, saying, “I didn’t see a real difference on the ice and off the ice, nothing really changed [from] what I can tell. I think the referees… they got used to [us] not having a captain, because that’s the one [who] usually goes up.”

The Bruins were not alone in playing without a captain. They were one of five teams with a vacant captaincy in the 2025-26 season, along with four teams that did not qualify for the playoffs (Chicago, San Jose, St. Louis, Vancouver).

“Listen, it was a full group effort. Everybody helped us. There are many leaders during a year. The season is so long, so early on, you probably lean more on certain guys and the older guys and the more experienced guys,” said alternate captain David Pastrnak. “As the season goes and you’ve been together for a while, there’s a lot of guys from the younger age and the middle age stepping up as a leader. It’s been a group effort, and credit to us and credit to all the guys that helped us out.”

Sturm also praised Nikita Zadorov and Viktor Arvidsson’s leadership on Sunday, and he spoke highly of Jeremy Swayman as a leader in Round 1.

Even Seventh Player Award winner Fraser Minten has been praised for his maturity, and Marat Khusnutdinov spoke up about his desire to get better at English so that he can have more of a voice in the locker room.

Khusnutdinov was the captain of Team Russia at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championships.

Also, a small history note, the Bruins did not have a captain when they won the Stanley Cup in 1970 or 1972. Chief John Bucyk, who was the team’s alternate captain, received the Cup both times.

That might be a sign.

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The post Marco Sturm Addresses Lack of Bruins Captain appeared first on Boston Hockey Now.

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