There will be a question facing the coaching and management staff of the Senators this fall, if the expected happens and both Chris Phillips and Chris Neil are on the sidelines more than they are in the lineup for the coming season.
The two veterans and career Sens players are currently serving as the official alternate captains to Erik Karlsson. In the absence of the two Chris' last season, the "A"s were sported by Kyle Turris and Bobby Ryan.
The decision must be made to 1) keep Phillips and Neil wearing the letters whenever they are in the lineup and delegate them when they aren't; 2) Name Ryan and Turris as official alternates as well and rotate the letters accordingly; or 3) take the letters away from Phillips and/or Neil and give them full time to the younger players.
While option 3 might be the most logical course of action considering how little they (especially Phillips) are likely to play, that might come as a slap in the face and disrespectful to a pair of players who really gave the franchise everything they had for so long.
And no, you don't need to wear a letter to be a leader, and neither one of the Chris' seems like they would be a disruption in the locker room if they were sitting out for lengthy periods of time. But they both put in their time and climbed to the position they occupy now in the Sens hierarchy.
And as they both play out what is likely their final year, at least in Sens uniforms, there shouldn't be a problem with the veterans leading off the ice, and removing the letter would really be anti-climactic to what they have done to get themselves into those positions in the first place.
I don't know for sure how much either Phillips or Neil will play, but it is pretty safe to assume that neither will be in the category of everyday player. Neither was a part of the lineup during the season ending run that drove the Sens to the playoffs, by injury, but I don't think they were pressed back to get into the lineup either.
I would go ahead and name Turris and Ryan as official alternate captains, and use all 4 in that role.
If a team can name 4 captains in lieu of having a single captain, there is no problem for a team to name 4 alternates In fact, it is a scenario that has been done quite often before. Instead of naming a set of home and road letter-wearers, however, the default would be to 4 and 25, and if one or both are out of the lineup, then it would defer to one of the other two on any given night.