It was just a little over 20 years ago that Steve Yzerman retired from his playing career as a Detroit Red Wing, with the captaincy of the team being left undecided until Nicklas Lidstrom was named on Aug. 23, 2006.
Now, the Red Wings are looking for their next captain under a far different set of circumstances. Dylan Larkin, the hometown kid who grew up watching the team requested a trade out of town at the beginning of summer.
Now, with training camp less than a month out and after a surprise change in management, Larkin is still on the roster and a trade seems further away now than it did then. However, with the season's start on the horizon, the team will need to pivot from its top pivot in their leadership group once more, and the choice seems obvious.
Moritz Seider has been described by head coach Todd McLellan as the 'diesel engine that runs this team.'
That was before any Larkin trade request was a twinkle in reporters' eyes. Over the past week, team media has also featured the tall defenseman heavily across platforms, including a solo photo op the same day an interview from German outlet Eishockey News dropped. The Red Wings have been very careful about who they have and have not shown on their pages over the summer, and there has been a near total absence of Larkin, outside of a 'happy birthday post' in July.
Outside of the organization, Seider was named the no. 9 blueliner in the league by the NHL media in their annual positional Top 20 rankings. Red Wings fans will assert that that's underselling the big German. In an offseason of uproar, Seider seems like the man to put this train back on track.