The Bruins spent last season without an official captain, and that unusual stretch is probably not going to last much longer.
Boston went through the first season in a quarter-century without putting the “C” on anyone’s sweater, but the expectation now is that the job gets filled at some point. When it does, the list of realistic choices looks awfully short: David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy.
McAvoy looked like the obvious successor after Brad Marchand was traded to the Florida Panthers, but Boston never made that move. Instead, the Bruins rolled through the entire 2025-26 season without naming a replacement, and that has shifted the conversation toward Pastrnak.
A new Hunter Crowther article at Daily Faceoff projects Pastrnak as the player who will get the captaincy for the season ahead. Crowther wrote: "It felt like an inevitability that Charlie McAvoy would be next to serve as captain," Crowther wrote.
"The Bruins have had several defenders wear the ‘C’ for long periods, including Ray Bourque and Zdeno Chara, and McAvoy has been a major presence on the club in his nine full NHL seasons. But after they went through the entire 2025-26 season without naming a replacement, it feels like they’ll never give it to him.
Enter Pastrnak, who finished 2025-26 with his fourth straight 100-point campaign, had 32 more points than second-place Morgan Geekie and was the primary reason why Boston made it to the playoffs."
Pastrnak turned 30 in May, which makes him a sensible long-term answer if the Bruins want to settle the position and move on. If Boston chooses him, it should be a decision that keeps the team from revisiting the captaincy conversation anytime soon.
That said, McAvoy would not be a strange choice either. Boston is in the rare position of having two legitimate candidates, and that’s a pretty good problem to have.
The only real question now is timing. No one knows exactly when the Bruins will make it official, but it’s fair to expect that by the time the season opens, they’ll have a captain again.
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