The Bruins still don’t have a captain, and Cam Neely isn’t rushing to force the issue.
Speaking Monday during the annual Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon, the Boston president kept the door open on a decision but made it clear the team is looking for the right fit, not just a label. Boston has been without a captain since the March 7, 2025 trade that sent Brad Marchand to Florida, and with the 2026-27 season approaching, that vacancy remains unresolved.
“I don’t know if you’d necessarily need to have a guy unless there is that one guy that really stands out,” Neely said. “We’ve been blessed to have great captains here, from Bourque, Chara, Bergeron.
We like leaders, not followers. So you could have, hopefully, have 20 leaders.
That’s the one thing we look at: who’s going to help lead the team?”
Neely said he plans to sit down “shortly” with Don Sweeney and Marco Sturm to talk it through.
That lines up with Sturm’s stance from back in May, when he said he was comfortable with the leadership setup even without a formal captain. He also said he intended to revisit the subject with the front office later on.
“I always said I wanted a captain, but now, being through that first time, me as a head coach, not having a captain, I thought it went real well,” Sturm said on breakup day. “I just, maybe because guys were really close, the leadership group, I thought they did a good job overall.
Everyone had their input. There was no outsider.
We always kept it really tight. So I actually didn’t mind it.”
The Bruins leaned on a group approach last season. David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, and Hampus Lindholm wore the alternate captain’s ‘A,’ while Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm stepped in when needed if any of those three were out.
If Boston does choose a captain, Pastrnak and McAvoy are still the names most closely tied to the role. They’re the two longest-tenured Bruins, and both have already been central figures in the leadership group for several seasons. Pastrnak joined it in 2021-22, and McAvoy in 2023-24.
Sweeney made that point bluntly at the end-of-season press conference.
“When you’re talking about two players that are currently captains and a big, big part of our leadership group, you’re not in a position thinking you’re choosing between somebody,” Sweeney said during the end-of-season press conference. “They’re great people.
They’re great teammates. They’re great Boston Bruins, so for us, we look at the big picture and say, where’s everybody in their own personal development, their own family dynamic, and who can impact us the most without impacting themselves and how they go about their daily life.”
There are other paths, too, even if they seem unlikely. Co-captains would be one.
The Bruins have only done that once in their history, when Rick Middleton wore the ‘C’ at home and Ray Bourque wore it on the road from 1985-88. The last NHL team to use co-captains was the Carolina Hurricanes in 2017-18.
For now, though, the bigger buzz around the Bruins is what comes next in camp. Neely said that’s what has him most fired up, especially with younger players pushing for jobs and the roster carrying enough depth to create real competition.
“I’m excited about the competition in camp this year, to be honest, see some of the younger kids push for jobs. [James] Hagens got a taste a little bit last year, so we’ll see.
I know he’s been working really hard this offseason,” Neely said. “Got a new player in [JJ] Peterka.
I’m excited to see what he brings to us, but yeah, just the competition in camp. These younger players must be looking.
They should be licking their chops to say, ‘Okay, I want that spot right there.’”
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