Flames Defenseman Reveals Who Was Their Unofficial Captain Last Year
The Calgary Flames 2022-23 season was one of the most wild we've seen off the ice in recent years, and after Darryl Sutter refused to name a captain and steered the ship off a cliff, it's safe to say 2023-24 can only get better.
Captain material
In an interview with Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman, Flames star defenseman Rasmus Andersson has revealed that despite not having a 'C', one Calgary Flame stepped up and led the way.
Backs (Mikael Backlund) did it to a point last year. But even he, he said to me, I'm like ‘Backs, you are the captain,' he's like, ‘I know-ish, but I don't have the C so I can't do everything I want to.' And it's such a fine line with that because in our room, we all saw Backs as the captain, right? But for him it's hard. We see him as the captain, but he's not the captain.
We've seen stories come out of Flames camp that Backlund stood up to Sutter like no one else in the locker room, but with his contract up next summer, it's tough to see the Flames officially putting the 'C' on him unless an extension is in place.
Captain Andersson?
With Backlund's potential exit, the Flames have revealed they are going to name a new captain ahead of the 2023-24 season, with Andersson potentially in the running, and here's what he said about the potential captaincy.
Let's put it this way: it's something you would never turn down. And no player in the league would ever turn it down. And I would obviously love to be the captain of the Calgary Flames. But I feel like we have a lot of good leaders on our team, and whoever Connie and Husk, because they're such smart persons, whoever they pick it's going to be the right pick. And I would obviously embrace the challenge, as I just said, embrace the challenge and embrace the opportunity.
The Flames look down and out after a tough campaign last year, but with some talented prospects expected to play big roles in 2023-24, as well as bounce backs predicted for the likes of Jonathan Huberdeau and Jacob Markstrom, so keep an eye on this team going forward.
As Read on Flames Nation - Rasmus Andersson on the 32 Thoughts podcast: ‘We've all got that chip on our shoulder this year and we want to prove the doubters wrong'
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