Who is the best captain of all time?

Question

Who would you say is the best NHL captain of all time

???

Answer 1

Steve Yzerman and Mark Messier

Answer 2

Steve Yzerman.  Best player ever?  No.  But best captain.  Best leader.  Led with example.  Played through the thick and thin.  He was a team player and the best leader.

Mario Lemieux was also great, but Yzerman tops all.

Answer 3

how many times is this going to be asked in one night??!?!??!

Captain Kangaroo...

where's the dead horse picture???

Answer 4

SCOTT STEVENS!!!!! had 3 cups and almost kill paul karyia and eric lindros

Answer 5

Rick Valve.

Answer 6

Wow, I just answered this. But here's what I said last time

"Yzerman for all time. Sakic, Lidstrom, and Sundin currently... I'd also say Brendan Shanahan is one of the best alternate captains."

Answer 7

It's a hard battle between Steve Yzerman or Mark Messier.

I'm still gonna go with the Messiah though.He led the Gretzky-less Oilers to a cup and brought the Rangers there first cup in 54 years.He's also the only player in NHL history to captainize 2 teams to a Stanley Cup.

Answer 8

yeah, i love it when people "inventabilize" words too.

(did you know that "ginormous" is now an official word in the dictionary. "gigantic" + "enormous" = "ginormous"?)

i'm not going to sway anyone's opinion, and it really doesn't matter, but i'd like to point out that ...

Messier's cups w/ 2 different teams should NOT make him any better of a candidate than the fact that Yzerman had all 3 cups w/ the wings. what about loyalty? neither fact should vault the two players ahead of the other. Loyalty is great. blooming where you are planted is great.

food for thought: Yzerman didn't have the supporting cast and mentorship that Messier had in the Edmonton years. he had no mentor. he was the mentor.

this isn't about who is the best player. it's about who was the best LEADER. who was the easiest to follow. so names like Gretzky and Lemieux, although phenomenal players, and pretty good captains, are not necessarily the best.

Answer 9

SIDNEY CROSBY MAN

ALL TEH WAY(H)

BRRAAPPP

Answer 10

For one thing, if the other users don't like answering questions more than once then skip it.  You are not abligated to answer these questions.  Now for an answer, definately Stevie Y.

Answer 11

i swear i just answered this question.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 12

Steve Yzerman.

Mark Messier had the best PR agent, but wasn't the best leader.

Lemieux shouldn't even enter the discussion.

Scott Stevens is an interesting choice. On ice and on the bench, absolutely worthy. Off ice, many of his mates would disagree.

Yzerman brought the balance of leading by example with his work ethic and pain threshold, delivering performances on the ice and inspiring some very talented teams to fall in line behind his guidance. That last piece is something Messier cannot claim.

When Messier teams in NY added talent, they fell into the underachieving, primadonna category. A real leader takes responsibility for those shortcomings in the room.

By the way, "captainize"? I love it and will have to use it.

Answer 13

All-time, for sentimental reasons and what he overcame, Maurice Richard

In the post-expansion era (I am unable to pick one) Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman, Raymond Bourque, Mario Lemieux, and Scott Stevens

Kayla nice job in promoting Mess, but the hat trick was in game 6. Rags still had to win game 7 which they did on that controversial Mattheau goal.

Answer 14

joe sakic

Answer 15

In my biased opinion........Yzerman.

Answer 16

Mr. Mario Lemieux!

Answer 17

Mark Messier is usually considered one of the best if not the best captains in hockey and it wasn't cause of some "PR agent", whatever that means.

The guy was able to mold teams into teammates, he made rookies feel welcomed by buying them nice suits and saying it was from the team, leaving gifts for the team at their hotel when he wasn't even with the team because of injuries,  and he never backed down from showing any kind of emotion (we all know his crying when speaking of his teammates and if you've never seen it, go look up his "look").  

Not only were his actions off the ice, but look at what he did on the ice. When Edmonton won their first Cup, Messier on a team full of future superstars won the Conn Smyth. He captained 2 teams to Stanley Cups (beating the favored Boston 4-1 in 1990 and then with NYR after guaranting a win versus the upstart Devils to get to the Finals in 1994).

Finally keep in mind the NHL gives out a Mark Messier Trophy for the best leader in the league every month now. To get an award like that named after you is a pretty big honor.

stevie y had no mentor? what about scottie bowman who made yzerman change his game and play defense? and i don't think you can knock messier for playing with gretzky and coffey when detroit was full of their own superstars at that the time that made them a favorite every year for awhile in the west.

and habsfan, i know his initial guarantee was to win game 6, but i think he was kinda looking past that as well. however i only wrote what i did cause i was just suspecting most people knew what i was talking about without going into much detail :)

Answer 18

mark messier- not only did he lead the oilers to a cup when they lost gretzky but he also led the rangers to the stanley cup after 54 years. he scored a hatrick in to keep them in the series. he was a great captain and a great teammate.