MONTREAL — Team North America will likely name its captain sometime this week, coach Todd McLellan said Wednesday.
It is the only one of the eight teams in the World Cup of Hockey yet to name its captain and alternates.
"It’ll happen fairly soon now, potentially (Thursday) or between the two exhibitions games," said McLellan.
North America plays its first pre-tournament game Thursday night in Quebec City against Team Europe. The two teams meet again Sunday in Montreal.
Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers is among the favourites to get the nod, but coaches of the under-24 squad may opt for an older and more experienced player like Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche, two-time Stanley Cup winner Brandon Saad of the Columbus Blue Jackets or Mark Scheifele, recently named an alternate captain of the Winnipeg Jets.
Asked if McDavid is captain material, McLellan said: "He has a lot of the qualities of a really good leader. Does he need to have a ‘C’ on his jersey for that to happen? I don’t think so, but that may occur."
"It would be a huge honour," said the 19-year-old McDavid. "But as I keep saying about this captaincy thing, whether you wear a letter or not doesn’t matter.
"Everyone in this room is a leader and everyone has the right to be heard. I think that’s the beauty of all of us being under 24."
Captains named so far are Sidney Crosby of Canada, Mikko Koivu of Finland, Henrik Sedin of Sweden, Joe Pavelski of the United States, Tomas Plekanec of the Czech Republic, Anze Kopitar of Team Europe and Alex Ovechkin of Russia.
