We should find out this week if Andrew Ference will captain the new-look Edmonton Oilers in Year One of the Connor McDavid era.
“I’ve had discussions with Andrew and with Todd [McLellan, the Oilers’ head coach], and we’ll have something in the next couple of days,” general manager Peter Chiarelli said on Hockey Central @ Noon Tuesday regarding the club’s captaincy.
There was some speculation that Ference, 36, might not even make the Oilers’ 23-man, opening-night roster, and Chiarelli said Monday at a press conference that his on-ice role will change this season.
The Oilers added to their defence core this summer, bringing in Eric Gryba, Andrej Sekera and young Griffin Reinhart.
“There’s a lot of new bodies, and we don’t have a No. 1 horse, so to speak,” Chiarelli said Tuesday. “We gotta coach ’em up.”
A fantastic community-minded role model and Stanley Cup winner, Ference has lost a step with his teammates on the ice.
Interestingly, the blueliner asked McLellan about the ‘C’ shortly after his new coach was hired in May.
“I like things out in the open,” Ference told the Edmonton Journal back in August. “I don’t like walking on eggshells or awkward moments, player to coach, player to GM. This isn’t a vanity project. We should want everybody pulling on the same rope for the Oilers.”
There are a number of options here.
Taylor Hall, the team’s best player right now and a star signed through 2020, might be the most logical choice — and safest bet — to inherit Ference’s role. Core forwards Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle (injured) could make an outside case. We could even throw wildcard Matt Hendricks to the debate. The veteran winger captained Team USA to a surprise bronze medal at the world championships last spring.
Choose one of them, some argue, and you’re only putting off the inevitable: Captain Connor McDavid. But slapping a ‘C’ on the 18-year-old’s chest seems premature and unnecessary.
“He’s been one of our better players [in preseason]. He’s just so smart,” Chiarelli said. “He still has things to learn. If you look back at a number of players at 18 years old, they’re going to have issues with the strength and size of the opposition.”
Perhaps the Oilers go the route of the 2014-15 Montreal Canadiens or San Jose Sharks, and name a group of alternates instead of one captain.
Regardless, one senses Ference will handle the decision with class.
“Anybody can be captain… the way I look at it is, who would be the same person with or without it?” Ference told the Journal.
“It shouldn’t change who you are as a person. Some guys who have the captaincy can elevate their role and how they feel, but how they act and who they are? That shouldn’t change.”
