The most successful of the four recent entries into the NHL, the Minnesota Wild make no mistake as to who is number one, as in the number retired in tribute to the fans. They also have had an interesting take on the captaincy. In the Jacques Lemaire era, the captaincy was rotated on a monthly basis, and it was only last season that the team decided to go with a permanent captain, which coincided with a change in GM, coach, and star player. In the inaugural season, the team went with (in order, as all lists will be in this piece) Sean O'Donnell, Jim Dowd, Wes Walz, Brad Bombardir, and Darby Hendrickson as captains. The following year, Dowd, Filip Kuba, Brad Brown, and Andrew Brunette were the team captains. 2002-03 was the first year they made the playoffs, and arguably the team's most successful season. Their captaincy had Bombardir, Matt Johnson, Sergei Zholtok, and Bombardir again as captains, with Bombardir serving from February until the end of the Wild's playoff run in his second run that year. The following year saw Brown, Brunette, Richard Park, Bombardir, Dowd, and Brunette again as captains.
After the lockout, the team went with Alex Henry, Kuba, Willie Mitchell, Brian Rolston, and Walz as captains. The following season saw Rolston, Keith Carney, Rolston again, and Mark Parrish wearing the C. 2007-08 was the most recent time the Wild made the playoffs, and had Pavol Demitra, Rolston, Parrish, Nick Schultz, Mikko Koivu, and Marian Gaborik wear the C. The following year was the last year of the rotating captaincy, and saw Koivu, Kim Johnsson, Koivu again, Brunette, and Koivu for a third time wear the captain's C. One regime change later, Koivu was named the team's first permanent captain in 2009.
Yes, it has been a weird and Wild (no pun intended) trip for the captain's C in Minnesota, but would you expect anything less from a team that plays in a hockey mad state?
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