O Captain! My Captain! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Steve Yzerman

Steve Yzerman played for the Detroit Red Wings for more than two decades. He was drafted at age 18 in 1983, fourth overall, and started his rookie season that fall after a great showing at training camp. He succeeded Danny Gare as team captain, named as captain at the start of the 1986-87 season; at that time, he became the team's youngest captain ever (21 years old). Yzerman retired in 2006, had his jersey number retired in 2007 and became a member in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009. Though he spent his entire playing career with Detroit, Yzerman became the vice president and general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2010; the next season he was nominated for General Manager of the Year.

In addition to three Stanley Cup wins, Yzerman was also a member of the gold medal-winning Team Canada in 2002 in Salt Lake City. He was also the Executive Director of Team Canada for 2010 Vancouver Olympics, where Team Canada won gold again.

Answer: Ray Bourque

Ray Bourque was chosen eighth overall by the Boston Bruins in the 1979 NHL draft. After an impressive rookie season, and subsequent seasons, Bourque became a co-captain of the team in 1985, along with Rick Middleton; Bourque was the on-ice captain for away games from 1985 to 1988. When Middleton retired in 1988, Bourque became captain for all games. He broke the previously-held record for longest-serving captain of the Bruins (previously was Dit Clapper) and when he left Boston, he held the record for the longest-serving captain in NHL (this record was broken by Steve Yzerman of the Detroit Red Wings).

Late in the 1999-2000 season, with the Bruins on track to miss the playoffs, Bourque requested to be traded to a team where he would have a chance at winning a Stanley Cup before he retired. He and the Bruins had made it as far as the Stanley Cup Final in 1988 and again in 1990 but lost both times to the Edmonton Oilers. In March 2000, he was traded to the Colorado Avalanche. With the Avalanche, Bourque made it as far as the Western Conference finals that year, losing to the Dallas Stars. The next year, however, the Avalanche went all the way, and Bourque won his Cup in what would be his last NHL game. Though Bourque was only an alternate captain for the Avalanche, he was the first player to do a victory lap around the arena with the Cup hoisted above his head when team captain Joe Sakic passed off the honour to him.

Answer: Roberto Luongo

The rule, colloquially referred to as the "Durnan rule" was enacted before the 1948-49 NHL season. The rule's informal name refers to Bill Durnan, a goaltender who served as captain of the Montreal Canadiens for part of the 1947-48 season. The league decided that goalies should not be team captains because of multiple complaints that the time it took Durnan to go to and from his end of the rink to centre ice to speak with officials created unnecessary delays in the game, sometimes giving his team an unofficial and unsanctioned brief 'time out'.

The Vancouver Canucks, however, clarified that the rule means that goaltenders simply cannot serve as the on-ice captain during games; the honour can still be bestowed upon a goalie off-ice. So, when the Canucks needed a captain following Markus Naslund's departure, Roberto Luongo became the team's captain in September 2008 but never wore the captain's C on his jersey during a game. Alternate captain Willie Mitchell performed captain duties on-ice, primarily speaking to the officials. Luongo remained captain for two seasons, stepping down prior to the 2010-11 season following speculation that being captain in addition to being starting goaltender was too much pressure to take on.

Luongo was drafted fourth overall in 1997 by the New York Islanders; at the time, this made him the highest selected goaltender in NHL draft history. This distinction was broken by his replacement on the New York Islanders, Rick DiPietro, who the club drafted first overall in 2000. Luongo also played for the Florida Panthers before being traded to Vancouver before the start of the 2006-07 season. In 2010, Luongo replaced all-star goalie Martin Brodeur as the starting goaltender for Team Canada at the Olympics; Canada won gold that year.

Answer: Sidney Crosby

Sid the Kid burst into the NHL when he began playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2005-06. He has been called "The Next One", as in "The Next Great One", or the next Wayne Gretzky. In addition to his Art Ross win early on in his career, within the first five seasons of his NHL career he also finished as a runner-up for the Calder Rookie of the Year award (which he lost to Alex Ovechkin) and co-won the Rocket Richard trophy for most goals scored in 2010 (tied with Steve Stamkos at 51 goals each). In 2007, he also won both the Hart Memorial trophy for league MVP and the Lester B. Pearson award for league MVP as voted by fellow players. If that weren't enough accomplishment for such a young man, he led his team to winning the Stanley Cup in 2009 and, a few months later, he scored the game winning goal in overtime in Vancouver to win Canada a gold medal in men's hockey in the 2010 Olympics.

Crosby became the captain of the Penguins for the start of the 2007-08 season at age 19 years and 297 days (when the announcement was made on May 31, 2007), just barely breaking the previous standard set by Vincent Lecavalier who was named captain of the Tampa Bay Lightning at age 19 years and 315 days. The announcement made Crosby the youngest permanent team captain in league history; Brian Bellows served as captain of the Minnesota North Stars in 1984 when he was 19 years and 131 days old, but he was an interim captain and was never named permanently to the job. With the 2009 Cup win, Crosby also became the youngest captain in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup, at 21 years, 10 months and 5 days old - not to mention all the other records he set for being the youngest to do this, that and everything else.

Answer: Joe Sakic

Joe Sakic was drafted in the first round by the Quebec Nordiques in 1987. He spent another year playing in the WHL before starting NHL play for the 1988-89 season. He became captain of the Nordiques in 1992 (having previously served as co-captain in 1990-91). When the Nordiques franchise was sold in 1995 and moved to Denver, Colorado, Joe Sakic went along and stayed captain, but now of the Colorado Avalanche.

The Avalanche won the Stanley Cup that season, with Sakic winning the Conn Smythe trophy for playoff MVP. They won a second Cup in 2000-01 and Sakic took a few more personal awards that year too: the Hart Memorial trophy for league MVP, the Lady Byng Memorial trophy for most gentlemanly player, and the Lester B. Pearson award for being the peer-voted MVP. In addition to his NHL trophies, Joe Sakic also won a gold medal with Team Canada in the 2002 Olympics. Plagued by injuries, Sakic retired after the 2008-09 season; his retirement came with giving up the distinction of being the Avalanche's only captain until that point and ending his run as the league's longest-serving active captain.

Answer: Mark Messier

Mark Messier, surprisingly a third round draft pick originally, began his career with the Edmonton Oilers in 1979. He won his first Cup with the Oilers in 1984; the same year, he won the Conn Smythe trophy for being the most valuable player in the playoffs. Messier won four more Cups with the Oilers, in 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1990. In 1990, he was the team captain; the honour was given to him after Wayne Gretzky left the team in 1988.

At the beginning of the 1991-92 season, Messier was traded to the New York Rangers. In 1994, the Rangers won their first Stanley Cup in 54 years. Captain Messier scored the game-winning goal in Game 7 of the Finals. For this, he was dubbed not only "The Messiah" but also "Mr. June" by New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. The 1994 Stanley Cup win also made Messier the first NHL captain in league history to captain two different teams to the Cup.

A couple years later, in 1997, Mark Messier left New York and headed to Vancouver where he became the captain of the Canucks for a few seasons. Things generally didn't go well for Messier in Vancouver; he didn't nearly match his previous seasons' point totals and the team had no interest in resigning him when his contract expired at the end of the 1999-2000 season. He rejoined the New York Rangers, getting back the captaincy of that team immediately, and played another four years before announcing that he was retiring, after the NHL locked out season 2004-05. Despite a few lacklustre seasons in the last stretch of his career, when he retired, Mark Messier was second only to Wayne Gretzky in total career points.

Answer: Daniel Alfredsson

Swedish-born Daniel Alfredsson was selected 133rd overall in the 1994 draft by the Ottawa Senators, and certainly proved to be more valuable to the team than many other players who were selected in the first round. He became the team captain at the start of the 1999-2000 season, when the captaincy was stripped away from former Senators star Alexei Yashin, who went MIA from training camp and refused to play the remaining year on his contract unless the club gave him more money. Though Yashin returned a year later, forced to honour his contract, Alfredsson remained team captain. When Joe Sakic retired from the NHL in 2009, that left Alfredsson as the longest-serving active team captain at that time. At the same time, he became the longest-serving European captain ever when Saku Koivu left the Montreal Canadiens, giving up his captaincy tenure; Koivu and Alfredsson had previously been tied for equal years of service as captain. Upon pulling a Ray Bourque and deciding to sign with the Detroit Red Wings in hopes of having a better chance to win a Cup before he retires, Alfredsson's tenure as longest serving active team captain came to an end following the 2012-2013 season. The title then became Shane Doan's, captain of the Phoenix Coyotes since 2003.

In 2007, the Ottawa Senators made it to the final round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in franchise history. This made Alfredsson the first European-trained captain to lead a team that far in the playoffs (a distinction that was surpassed the next year when captain Nicklas Lidstrom led the Detroit Red Wings to a 2008 Stanley Cup victory). In fact, Alfredsson literally led the team to the finals; he scored the series-winning goal in the Eastern Conference finals to send the team on the final round, where they unfortunately lost to the Anaheim Ducks.

In addition to his 1996 Calder trophy win for Rookie of the Year, Alfredsson also won the King Clancy Memorial trophy in 2012, which recognizes outstanding team leadership.

Answer: Scott Stevens

Scott Stevens was initially selected fifth overall in the 1982 NHL draft by the Washington Capitals. He played a few good seasons with the Capitals before being signed by the St. Louis Blues in 1990 (where he was also team captain). Though they signed him to a four year deal, he only played one season for the Blues after an arbitrator determined that Scott Stevens was to be given to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for the Blues signing the Devils' restricted free agent Brendan Shanahan. When a team makes an offer to a restricted free agent, the player's home club is given the opportunity to match the offer or, if they choose not, are entitled to compensation if the player goes to the new team. Though Stevens initially didn't want to go, it ended up being a great deal for him and for the Devils.

Stevens captained the Devils from 1992 until he retired; when he retired, he held the record for being the longest-serving Devils captain in the team's history. He led his team to three Stanley Cups, in 1995, 2000 and 2003. He also retired with the record for most games played by a defenceman, later broken by Chris Chelios, and a perfect plus/minus record. A player's plus/minus is calculated by adding a point when he is on the ice when his team scores a goal (power play goals do not count), and having a point taken away when he is on the ice when a goal is scored against his team (again, power play goals do not count). Throughout all his seasons of playing, Scott Stevens never finished a season with a negative plus/minus.

Answer: Mario Lemieux

A first overall draft pick by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1984 draft, Mario Lemieux was one of the greatest players hockey has ever seen. He scored a goal on his first shot in first NHL game ever, and many, many others after that. When he returned from retirement, he proved that he still had it by scoring a goal and two assists in his first game back. He also proved he had great personal strength and perseverance when he returned stronger than ever after missing only two months while battling cancer. Despite missing time, he finished first in the league in points that year.

In the late '90s, after a series of financial blunders, the Penguins were forced to declare bankruptcy. Since they already owed Lemieux $30 million in deferred salaries, his proposal to buy the team instead of being paid back was accepted. At this point, he had already retired, but when he returned to play the next season, he was in a unique position, both player and team owner.

Lemieux retired for a second time in 2006, saying that he could not keep up with the pace of the game anymore. He remained team owner though and as such won a third Stanley Cup when the team did in 2009, making him the first person in league history to win the championship as both a player and owner. Despite no longer being the on-ice leader, Lemieux continued to mentor and nurture his team, including by allowing players to live with him and his family.

Answer: Wayne Gretzky

What is there to say about the Great One? He began playing at the NHL level in the 1979-1980 season, but he was never drafted into the league. This was because the Edmonton Oilers were a WHA team that was absorbed into the NHL when the WHA folded. Gretzky became captain of the Oilers in 1983 and the team won Stanley Cups in 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988. After the 1988 win, Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings. This was, no joke, considered a great travesty in Canada, their golden boy going to an American team. There was even a motion put forward to try to have the Canadian government stop the trade.

Gretzky was named an alternate captain of the Kings and was later promoted to captain. His presence in LA has been largely credited with making the sport popular in non-traditional hockey markets in the US. Towards the end of the 1995-1996 season, Gretzky was traded to the St. Louis Blues where he became captain of that team too. It didn't work out for him in St. Louis and for the next season, he signed a deal with the New York Rangers instead, with whom he would play out the rest of his career.

He was never named team captain in New York, though he did serve as interim captain for a few games in 1998 due to captain Brian Leetch being out with an injury. Gretzky retired at the end of the 1998-99 season. He was immediately inducted into the Hall of Fame when he retired and his jersey number #99 was retired league-wide, the first player in NHL history to be honoured in this manner.