The Bruins still haven’t put a captain back on the ice since Brad Marchand was traded away at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline, and Marco Sturm isn’t rushing to force the issue. What he does want, though, is a player who can do more than wear a letter. For Boston’s coach, the next captain has to be a steady presence, a bridge to the staff and a calm voice when things get tense.
Sturm said the challenge in Boston is that the standard was set by some towering names.
“One of the problems and issues we have here in Boston is that we had a guy like Bergeron, that we had a guy like Chara, or even Ray Bourque,” Sturm told Evan Marinofsky. “We had such good, high-quality captains here.
So everyone thinks automatically, ‘Oh, we need a guy like him.’ But that’s different.
These guys are gone. It’s a new generation; they’re different now.”
That idea carried into how he described David Pastrnak. Sturm made clear that Pastrnak doesn’t lead the same way Patrice Bergeron or Zdeno Chara did, but that doesn’t make his style any less effective.
“If you look at our guys now, I think David [Pastrnak], he’s a totally different leader as a Bergeron or Chara. Totally different.
Which is absolutely fine,” Sturm said. “I played with a guy like [Alex] Ovechkin.
He’s like that. He’s totally different.
[That] doesn’t mean he’s a bad leader; he just does things differently.”
Pastrnak isn’t the only voice in that room, either. Charlie McAvoy, Nikita Zadorov and Hampus Lindholm are part of a group that also includes veterans like Pavel Zacha, Sean Kuraly and Elias Lindholm. That gives Boston plenty of leadership options, even before the captaincy is officially settled.
For Sturm, the job description goes beyond experience. He wants someone who can communicate with coaches, connect with teammates and handle pressure without getting rattled.
“I do believe we have good leaders in our locker room,” said Sturm. “For me, personally, as a coach, he needs a strong voice in the room, obviously, but also who helps me out.
He should be the connection between coaches and also for the players in a lot of different areas of the game, on ice, off ice, you name it. Also, he can stay very calm during stressful moments.”
That’s why Pastrnak and McAvoy both fit the conversation. Neither is being asked to copy Bergeron or Chara, and that’s the point.
Those two former Bruins captains were rare in how they carried the room, and Boston had the luxury of having both at the same time for years. Pastrnak and McAvoy learned from that environment, and while their leadership styles are different, both are built for responsibility.
In the end, the Bruins may have a choice to make, but Sturm’s message is pretty clear: whether it’s Pastrnak or McAvoy, Boston has options that make sense. And if the decision comes down to those two, the Bruins won’t be making a bad one.
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