New York Rangers apparently chose a captain - but management REFUSED it

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Ryan
June 15, 2022 (1:22 PM)

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The New York Rangers haven't had a captain since Ryan McDonagh was traded in 2018 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Arthur Staple of the Athletic wrote about the teams offseason priorities and also mentioned something interesting about the New York Rangers.

Apparently going into the 2021-22 season, head coach Gerard Gallant chose a captain for the team, but someone above him refused it. The rumour is the call came from newly appointed GM Chris Drury.

Who was this apparent captain you ask? Well, it was supposed to be Jacob Trouba.

At this point Trouba had only been with the team for 2 seasons, so it is interesting as to why he was chosen over someone like Chris Kreider who has been a life-long Ranger.

So instead of choosing a captain for this past season, they went with six Alternate Captains instead, them being: Barclay Goodrow, Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin, Ryan Strome, Jacob Trouba and Mika Zibanejad.

Jacob Trouba was going to be named captain of the Rangers going into 2021-2022 season before someone above Gallant nixed the plan, according to @StapeAthletic https://t.co/K4fvuc6p4E pic.twitter.com/miQKjWexyV� Brandon (@brcohen04) June 15, 2022

While the majority of us probably think Kreider should be the teams next captain, Kreider himself thinks is should be this player:

Chris Kreider holds back tears while speaking about his respect for Mika Zibanejad:

"When your leader rises to the challenge night in and night out..." pic.twitter.com/6ncoqlbCbX� Rangers Videos (@SNYRangers) June 13, 2022